HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
FOURTH EDITION
TTATL! FULL OF (1RACE
SIMPLE THOUGHTS ON
THE ROSARY
MOTHER MARY LOYOLA
AUTHOR OF
COK\M SANCTISSIMO," ' ' CON KKSSION AM) COMMUNION.
KTC.. KTC.
H 1)1 TED r,V
FATHER THURSTON, S.J
ST. LOUIS, MO.
H. HKRDHR, 17, SOUTH BROADWAY
LONDON AND KDIXBl RG\\
S A N D > cV C O M P A X V
NiMl Obstat
HKRBERT THURSTQN, S.J.
Censor Deputatits
Imprimatur
CARD. VAUGHAN
Arcliifp. IVestmonast.
TO MARY 1M. MACULA !
OUR LIFE
OUR SWEETNESS
AND OUR HOPE
CONTENTS
PAI.I:
PREFACE ix
INTRODUCTION - - 1
I.— Till; JOYFUL MYSTERIES
TlIE ANNUNCIATION '23
THE VISITATION 31
THE NATIVITY 38
THE PRESENTATION 49
THE FINDING IN THE TEMPI. F. - GO
II.— THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES
MARY AND THE PASSION - 71
THE AGONY IN THE OARDEN 75
THE SCOURGING AT THE PILI.AI; 91
THE CROWNING WITH THORNS - 99
THE TARRYING OF THE ('RUSH - 109
THE CRUCIFIXION - 123
III.— THE (JLORIOUS MYSTERIES
THE RESURRECTION K,:>
THE ASCENSION 1st
THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY (!HOST L'04
THE ASSUMPTION OF THE PRESSED VIRGIN :M9
rfHE CORONATION OF THE PI.ESSEP VIRCJIN 'J3G
PREFACE
IT would be hard to find a more striking example of
the sure instinct with which the Church feels her
way to what is most helpful and practical in matters
of piety, than the gradual adoption and final accept
ance throughout the Catholic world of the devotion
of the Kosary. Whatever difference of opinion may
exist regarding the historical question of the origin
of this form of prayer, there can lie no hesitation in
proclaiming it to he singularly adapted to the needs
and capacities of the great body of the faithful. It
is sometimes disparaged as a mechanical form of
devotion, akin to the praying wheel of the Buddhists,
and there is sufficient semblance of truth in the
reproach to make it sound plausible, but the people
who use such language can have little acquaintance
with the Kosary as it is practised by those who love
it and who understand its possibilities. After all,
wherever any constant, form of words is employed
there is danger that such forms after a while may
lose their power to rouse the attention, and may
come to be repeated more or less mechanically. Those
must. I venture to think, be very exceptional
persons, who after long experience of public prayers
at night or morning can assure us that the word
x PREFACE
spoken by the lips never fails to excite the appro
priate mental concept. Whether the Our Father
be recited once a day or fifty times a day, it is almost
equally difficult at any given recitation to follow the
complex train of ideas embodied in the sounds which
frequent repetition has made so familiar. This is
true even for the educated, but it must be much
more true in the case of those millions of simple and
uninstructed peasant folk, for whose devotional needs
it is the Church's special care to provide. Is it not
thon reasonable that she should accept a more or less
mechanical recitation as almost inevitable, and that
she should do her best to make profit out of this very
difficulty? To tell such persons simply to meditate
or to frame prayers for themselves is to show little
acquaintance with the very limited capacities of the
uneducated multitude. If these are to pray in
private they must have something definite to do,
something at least to measure by, something to count,
something to say. Scientists tell us that there must
be a nucleus to form the rain drop, that there must
be some foreign body upon which the silver held in
solution can be precipitated by an electric discharge.
The illiterate cannot commit to memory psalms or
long prayers, but given a rudimentary apparatus of
Hail Marys, which the very dullest can learn and
understand, it is a comparatively easy task to graft
upon this stock a system of meditations recalling the
incidents of Our Lord's Life. The child or the
peasant who would remain vacant-eyed and open-
mouthed if bidden to make a mental prayer upon the
PKKFACK xi
Nativity of Our Lord, becomes an apt learner enough
when we fell him to say ten JIail Marys to Our Lady
beside the Oil). There is surely no irreverence in
using Hail Marys devoutly repeated as in some sense
a measure of time. Though the individual words
are little marked, it is fully realised that eaeh is a
salutation to Mary. We acknowledge the advent
of Royalty with the meaningless discharge of cannon
duly numbered. We count by three times three the
acclamations with which we hail a popular hero.
Why should not Gabriel's salutation be echoed by
the faithful on earth, as the "Holy, Holy, Holy/' is
repeated unceasingly before the presence of the Most
High by the choirs of Angels in Heaven? After all
there is music in the words. They are the bourdon
of a melody which each faithful soul, according to
the measure of its individual Drifts, improvises for
itself in contemplating the scenes of Our Saviour's
Life and Resurrection. And even where the indi
vidual effort is very feeble, who shall say that those
bare whispered Aves have no appointed place in the
chorus of human praise? Tt must be a most varied
harmony which rises heavenwards from a Church
which is the Church of the poor as well as of the rich,
of the iirnorant multitude as well as of the lettered
few. There is no more eloquent proof of the Church's
divine origin than that she makes provision for all
her children and takes account of their very different
needs, regardless of quality or station. Let it be
added at once that I must not be understood to imply
that the Rosary is a devotion intended only for the
xii PREFACE
uneducated. No one who may make acquaintance
with the reflexions which Mother Loyola has provided
in this little book will fail to see that the Rosary is
a form of prayer in which both imagination and
intelligence may be exercised to the full. More
over, everyday experience tells us that there are few
educated persons who have become familiar with
this devotion who do not discover a certain nameless
sweetness in its simple methods. No one need fear
that he is too intellectual to find help and consolation
in his Rosary, though perhaps for those who have
not learned the practice in their youth some little
perseverance may be required before the full possi
bilities of the exercise are appreciated. Probably not
the least part of its charm lies in this, that here,
master and servant, parents and children, learned
and ignorant, cleric and layman meet, and are con
scious that they meet, upon common ground.
I have designedly refrained in these few words of
preface from making any comment upon the history
of the Rosary. But there is one fact as to which
all students of our devotional literature must be
agreed, and that is that since the close of the fifteenth
century the Dominican Order have made it specially
their own and have had more to do than any other
religious body with the universal adoption of this
admirable form of prayer. It is to the innumerable
confraternities of the Rosary established under
Dominican auspices that we owe the prevalence of
the fifteen " mysteries/' now so familiar, over all and
every other of the many " crowns " and chaplets
PREFACE xiii
which disputed the pre-eminence in the early years
of the sixteenth century. Neither can any thought
ful person hesitate to recognise the intrinsic superi
ority of an arrangement which is at once eminently
simple and which contains so much of what is certain
and scriptural, and so little of what is mere matter of
fancy. No devout Catholic, whether instructed or
ignorant, who habitually meditates upon the
mysteries of the Rosary as our Holy Father has
exhorted us all to do, can fail to acquire a yery real
familiarity with the most vital of (hose lessons
which our Divine Redeemer came from Heaven to
teach mankind by His example. Such a one may
not follow by any conscious act the meaning of each
recurrent phrase in the quickly repeated Ares, but
he will have learned in what sense Our Lady is full
of irrace, how far she is nrivileifed above her fellows,
how blessed is indeed the fruit of her womb, and
this perhaps more thoroughly than if his mind had
been slavishly attentive to the exact signification of
every uttered word.
Finally, it is in the conviction that it would be
difficult to meet with more helpful thoughts, or more
vivid pictures than Mother Loyola has here provided
to aid us in the meditation of the drama of man's
Redemption that 1 commend the pages which follow
to the consideration of all true lovers of Our Lady's
Rosary.
HERBERT TTll'RSTOX. S,T.
INTRODUCTION
PEOPLK are coining to understand as they never
understood before how imieb can be learned by tlie
simple act of sight. The eye is an ii])t scliolar, and
noi only takes ia readily, but retains faithfully.
Hitherto, however, it has been lazy, or, at any rate,
it has not done its fair share of work. Hence a
genera! determination that it shall make up now
In i- lost time. IM.-tures arc multiplied on every side.
Our primers and our prayer-books swarm with
the:,:. Our magazines are coming if> I>P in great
part illustration. Our advertisements are often a
picture and a word. Tn the lecture room the magic
lantern is in constant requisition. So thoroughly,
indeed, has every one waked up to the fact that a
gre 't means of education has been neglected in the
past, that there is a danger of our suffering from
its excessive use in the future.
Xow, the Church found out tlie value ot pictures
long ago. She lined her walls with illustrations
while she was yet in the catacombs. She carried all
over the world the crucifix and the banner of Mary
as her first instruction in Christian docirine.. She
converted nations by painting's of the Last Tud<*-
*- * o
ment. And when the loving saint of Assisi found
2 INTRODUCTION
from his meditations on the Infant Jesus how useful
it is to have a scene before us when we pray, She
gave us the Christmas crib, which has become a
necessity, not only in every Catholic church through
out the world, but in the schoolroom and the nursery.
By means of Mystery and Miracle Plays the simple
folk of this country were taught, as they have never
been taught since, to realise Bethlehem, and Naza
reth, and Calvary. And the lessons sank deep.
The hold that the life of Christ and His Blessed
Mother had on imagination and mind and heart in
the ages of faith is evidenced, among other ways,
by the rhymes then in common use that have been
preserved to us in old manuscripts.
Yet pictures to be of any use must be looked at
thoughtfully. Watch some people walking through
an art gallery in which are gathered together master
pieces of, say, the English school of painting. They
move on with the regularity of a machine. Por
traits, still life, landscapes, interiors, village scenes,
battle, and sea pieces pass in unbroken procession
before their eye, which has not the chance of con
veying a single distinct impression to the brain.
You ask them what they thought of the collection,
and will be told : " Oh, it was all very nice ! "
Something after this fashion do people look at the
Crib and the Crucifix. What wonder, then, if
sights that have drawn tears from sinners and from
saints have no effect on them.
Not so did Mary look. She saw and pondered.
She saw the little trembling form in the manger on
INTRODUCTION 3
Christmas night; the face of the Babe on the day
of His Presentation; the look in the Boy's eyea
when they met hers in the Temple courts. " And
Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her
heart." Strange to say, it was because she knew so
much more and saw so much further than we see,
that she took care not to hurry on and miss her
lesson. She knelt in adoring love before her little
One an hour old, and said to Him : ''Wast Thou not
from the beginning, O Lord, my God, my Holy
One ! " (Ilab. 1). She looked at Him whose tiny
fingers clasped hers so tight, and remembered that
He had prepared the heavens and the earth, and
compassed the sea with its bounds (Prov. 8). What
wonder that her soul was for ever magnifying the
Lord, and rejoicing in God her Saviour!
For she knew why all this was done. Long before
St. Paul, she had said : " He loved me and delivered
Himself for inc." It was to get her her wondrous
graces, to do great things for her, that He had
emptied Himself of His glory and come down upon
earth. She could not get used to these thoughts.
They never lost their freshness. She gazed and
gazed upon Him with untiring love and thankful
ness, and ever-growing wonder and delight. And as
she gazed, the virtue of the Sacred Humanity went
out to her, as later to the needy, suffering crowd. For
to look lovingly at Jesus in the mysteries of His
human life is to draw into our own lives the virtues
of His. The sun prints upon the sensitized plate
the image we desire. More wondrously the true
4 INTRODUCTION
Light works upou our souls. But we must give it
time. 0 that we had a little of our Mother's habit
of pondering; blessed habit, it has made the
Church's saints in every age !
In His prayer for His apostles at the Last Supper,
our Lord said : " This is eternal life, that they may
know Thee, the onlv true God, and Jesus Christ
whom Thou has sent " (John IT). By this know
ledge of Himself, to which eternal life is attached,
He surely intended no mere barren belief in the
divinity of His Person, and in His Mission, but an
interior and familiar knowledge akin to theirs who
followed Him about during His earthly life, who
stood by when He taught in the Temple, and toiled
up Calvary, and spoke from the Cross. These sights
and sounds were not for His Holy Mother and a
few men and women of one generation only, but for
His followers in all time. St. John says : " In Him
was life, and the life was the light of men . .
the true light which enlighten eth every man that
cometh into this world" (John 1). And St. Paul
declares : " We shall be saved by His life " (Romans
5). That divine life is our great exemplar. A
certain measure of conformity with it is a necessary
condition of salvation. In proportion to their con
formity is the eternal happiness of all the elect.
But the lessons of Christ's life on earth, which are
as essential to us as the redemption He wrought on
Calvary, can only avail us by being diligently pon
dered. * St. Paul speaks of " learning Christ" (Ephes.
4), a phrase implying study. "Learn of Me," our
INTRODUCTION 5
Lord Himself says to us. We must watch, we must
listen intently, it' we would gain a real insight into
the mysteries of the three and thirty years. And
by the side of the Son, and for a fuller comprehension
of Him, we must contemplate the. Mother, the first
and most faithful of His disciples, who says to us,
with far greater right than St. Paul : " Be ve fol
lowers of me, as L am of Christ'' (1 Cor. 4). We
cannot separate these two lives, the most closely
interwoven that earth has ever seen. We cannot
study them apart without missing the significance
of each. Together they must work their effect upon
our souls.
This being so, we might, be sure the Church would
provide us with a method by which we may draw
near to .Jesus and Marv, near enough for the pur
poses of study: and an easy method, within reach of
us all. She does not disappoint us. She sees her
children in every generation, of every condition in
life, under every variety of circumstances, rich and
poor, learned and simple, young and old, the toilers
and the leisured, the successful and the down-
tiodden, calling to her to supply their need, and her
answer to all is — the Rosary. Here is an easy means
of bringing the sacred mysteries of the Incarnation
home to us, and of gradually conforming our lives
to the likeness of the two perfect lives on which we
gaze awhile each day. Hence our Holy Father, Leo
XIII., in his Encyclical on the Rosary, says:
" Among the several rites of honouring the Blessed
Mary, some are to be preferred, inasmuch as we
6 INTRODUCTION
know them to be the most powerful and the most
pleasing to our Mother ; and therefore do we most
specially name and recommend the Rosary, which
recalls to our minds the great mysteries of Jesus and
Mary — joys, sorrows, and triumphs." And again :
" We most earnestly exhort all the faithful to per
severe devoutly in the daily recitation of the
Rosary" (Leo XIII. Brev. Salutaris ille). These are
weighty words, and deserve to be considered atten
tively one by one.
We — the highest authority on earth, the Vicar of
Christ, the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit to the
children of the Church, who learn the Will of God
and the way of salvation from Our lips :
Most earnestly exhort — that is advocate and counsel
with all the authority and solicitude of the pastoral
office :
All the faithful — not only priests and religious,
the needy, the troubled, the leisured — but all — busy
men in the professions and trades, students, clerks,
toilers in the factory and in the field, the sick, the
old, the little children.
To the daily recitation — Does' this seem an incon
siderate demand when work is so heavy and repose
so short? It might be were the Rosary an addi
tional burden. But the busiest and the most weary
will tell you they can find ten minutes for their beads,
time to avail themselves for that brief space of our
Lord's invitation : " Come aside and rest a little."
And to persevere — It is easy to take up a holy
practice. To persevere in it takes courage, gener-
INTRODUCTION 7
osity, self-sacrifice — in a word, a true love of God,
and a dogged determination to save one's soul, and
to take (he best means to that end.
Dct'outli/ — This is harder still, unless we have come
to love our .Rosary, to say it — -it not with sensible
fervour, at least with the fervour of the will, i.e.,
with the reasonable application of mind and heart
which is enough to ensure to us its precious fruits.
It is, alas, but too true that many of us find the
ten minutes given to our Rosary a sadly weary time.
It gets no easier with practice, and we see no reason
for believing it is becoming more fruitful.
in the generalitv of cases the cause of this trouble
is not far to seek. The Jlosary cannot be well said,
cannot be an act of pictv, still less can be a pleasure,
and an unfailing resource in every need and mood,
unless we take some trouble to say it well. What,
then, are we to do!" There can be no question of
giving it up, of loosening our hold on the chain let
down from heaven to draw us in safety thither.
The only thing, therefore, to be done is to try to find
out why the Ivosary is so tedious to us.
Have I a method in saying it? Or, if nothing I
can dignify by the name of method, have I, when I
turn aside from the sights and sounds of daily life,
anything to substitute for them during the few
minutes given to my beads? As these pass through
my fingers, is every wandering thought allowed free
course through my mind? If so, is there any wonder
that I find my Rosary neither attractive nor helpful?
To say the Rosary as I ought, two things are
8 INTRODUCTION
requisite — (1) in my exterior deportment the rever
ence becoming one who is in converse with the Queen
of Heaven ; (2) reasonable pains to withdraw my
mind from irrelevant thoughts, and fix them on one
or other aspect of the many-sided mysteries I am
contemplating. I should, therefore, try to banish
from my mind frivolous or useless recollections, and
should seek as far as may be a time and place where
objects that would strike my senses and draw my
thoughts from the subject I am considering may be
shut out. We cannot think of two things at once,
and we must get rid of one set of thoughts if we are
to make room for another. I must leave as far as
possible the scenes of my daily life, and betake
myself — with my anxieties and difficulties if I will
— to other scenes, where a perfect life was lived for
me, and where difficulties and anxieties were per
fectly met in order to be my example.
Far-off scenes and persons are made marvellously
real to us in these days by means of the cinemato
graph and the gramophone. We see a train come
puffing into a station, the passengers alight, come
down the swarming platform, and smile at us as they
pass. In a concert room we may hear the very tones
of the voice of some famous singer. Little effort is
needed to recall the memory of these sights and
sounds. Nay, considerable effort is necessary to
efface them from the imagination on which they have
engraved themselves.
If only we could so bring before our minds the
Gospel scenes as to be impressed with something of
INTRODUCTION 9
this sense ol' reality! Ami why not? Wo can
familiarise ourselves with the Gospel narrative, put
together pictures we have SIMM), and descriptions we
have heard, and in this way create for ourselves a
very helpful environment when we come to contem
plate an incident in the life of our Lord or of His
Blessed .Mother. Of course, there cannot ho quite
the same vividness, and, of course, there must be
effort and diligence— what is ever done without?
But how can effort be better spent? Little by little
our scenes take shape, and at last the very name of
a mystery brings before us the picture that will not
only help to fix our imagination, but be a source of
holy and helpful thoughts.
VVe see the little room at Xnzareth, and the child
of fourteen at her prayer. We see. her reverence, her
stillness, the Angel coming in. We hear his saluta
tion, and listen for her reply. We notice the beauti
ful virtues that come out in it, and love these virtues
more and more for seeing their loveliness in Mary.
We feel, as it were, the expectancy of heaven and
earth in that midnight hour, the most eventful in
the world's history. We see the cave at Bethlehem,
how low and dark it is. We feel the prickly straw.
We hear the fe\v whispered words of Mary and
Joseph.
And so in the other mysteries. In all of them we
watch our Lord as if we were present and saw Him
in the Temple, in the Garden of Gethsemane, on
His way to Calvary. 'We note His attitude, the
expression of His face, His words, II is silence, His
10 INTRODUCTION
gestures. And through these exterior signs we try
to learn what is passing in. His Heart. Thus the
picturing of the scene leads by a natural transition
to the contemplation of persons, words, and actions.
In all this we must not tire the head by over
taxing the imagination. The rule here as in all
things is, to take what helps and to leave what
hinders us. Only, it is well to give the representa
tion of the scene and the dwelling on persons,
words, and actions a fair trial. Indeed, it is hard
to know what we can substitute for this that is not
the same thing — supposing of course we do not
limit our attention to the words we are saying. To
understand the Rosary as the Church understands it.
and as she proposes it to us, we must bear in mind
that it is a study of Christ and of His Blessed
Mother. The study may be no more than a quiet,
restful gaze, but even this supposes some such con
centration of the mind on persons, or on what they
are doing or saying.
It may not be amiss to notice the objection of
those who say : " If our pictures were anything
"better than the creatures of our own brain ; if we
could bring before us the scenes we wish to con
template with anything like truth of detail, then
indeed they would help ; but how few of us can do
this." There is some force, perhaps, in this objec
tion, though it did not trouble St. Bernard or St.
Bonaventure. Those who find it unsurmountable
can only let their brain pictures alone. By far the
greater number of us, however, are helped by even
INTRODUCTION 11
an approximation to the truth. When Gustave
Dore was at school, his professor of history often
made use of his talent for the benefit of his com
panions. "Don's step up to the board and draw
a portrait of Nero, that these gentlemen may fully
understand what I have been saying.'' Even an
imaginative portrait has its value in fixing the
attention, as the French professor well knew.
St. Ignatius would have us consider whether the
road from Xazareth to Bethlehem " be level or
through valleys and over hills: whether the stable
or cave of the Nativity be large or small, low or
lii»-ii, and how fitted up." As if the imagination
might be left a good deal to its own power of con
struction. At the same time, it cannot but be
praiseworthy to aim at historical accuracy as far as
possible. Love delights in detail ; the love of God
for us, and our love for Him is no exception to this
rule.
If a friend leaves the old country and settles in
Australia, we must know all about the new home
out there — how the house lies, the extent of the
ground it covers, its plan, prospect, rooms; above
all, his own sanctum, and the place where the
greater part of his day is spent. We must have
photographs to help out his description. We want
to picture him to ourselves. So we put together all
the material that comes to hand, and let loving
Imagination fill up the gaps.
Can it be less interesting to know what the Holy
House at Nazareth was like, and the Temple, and
12 INTRODUCTION
the Supper Room on Mount Sion ? Surely the chief
and noblest work for which our imagination is given
is to occupy itself with the mysteries of the God-Man
during His life 011 earth.
Still, there are many who find no help in repre
senting to themselves past and distant scenes. They
like to say their llosary in the actuality of the Heal
Presence. Choosing an hour when the church is
quiet, they take up their position before the taber
nacle, and by an act of vivid faith try to realise
that He is there who came to Mary, and hung in
agony, and rose in glory.
But in whatever way we strive to bring home to
us the mysteries of our Lord's life, let us bear in
mind that our study is no mere head exercise. The
head works only for the sake of the heart and the
will. We look and learn with a view to practice,
remembering that our Lord did, or said, or suffered
this or that, with us in His mind, and on purpose
for us. The thought uppermost in our mind must
be — all this for me. We have such a way of thinking
of our Lord's life as a piece of New Testament
history that was a great deal to John and Magdalen,
who listened to His words, and stood under the
Cross ; but as not concerning us individually, not
concerning me. Whereas it was for me as well as
for Mary Magdalen that he said — " Thy sins are
forgiven thee." As much for me as for John that
He said to His Holy Mother— " Behold thy son."
We lose what our Lord meant us to gain by the
story of His life, unless we remember that we
INTRODUCTION 13
individually wore present to Him in all the Gospel
scenes, and that it was because our needs hud to be
provided for, that lie spoke and acted as we read.
In a certain connoisseur's collection of paintings
is a very old picture of the Crucifixion. It is not
beautiful, but it i- striking. The canvas is cracked,
the figures are stiff, the colours are hard and dull.
Our Lady is there and Magdalen and John. And
kneel i nir at the foot of the Cross, is a mm looking
up at our Lord, whoso face is turned to her. The
picture has a curious story. The nun was the abbess
df a certain convent and a friend of the artist.
Hearing he was i^oin^1 to paint the Crucifixion, she
sa;(; |() him — "Oh! do put mo in. I was really
there, you know. Our Lord had mo in ILis mind
when Ho hiin»" on the Cross. He saw mo. IFo spoke
to me: do put me in." The picture may not be
moiv interesting- to others i'or her presence there,
but to herself it must certainly have made the
Crucifixion, and the death of her Saviour for Jicr, a
fact more vividly realised. Let us do for ourselves
what no artist is likely to do for us — put ourselves
into the scene whenever we look at Calvary or any
other scene of our Lord's dear human life. TTe shall
soon iiud what a difference it makes. Some look at
a procession from a window. Others follow it on
foot, have a part in it, perhaps carry an emblem.
In like manner some contemplate the life of Christ
with a pious but theoretical eye. We must have a
part in it if it is to influence our lives.
In one of his homilies St. Bonaventure teaches us
14 INTRODUCTION
how we may visit the Child Jesus in Egypt. What
he says may serve as a model for other contempla
tions. " Now let us dwell for a while on this home
coming of the Lord, for the consideration of these
things is right profitable unto piety. Go back,
therefore, unto Egypt, that thou mayest visit the
Child Jesus, and when thou hast found Him, per-
adventure with other children out of doors, He
will run to greet thee beholding thee, for He is a
kindly Child, and pleasant withal to speak to. And
kneeling down thou shalt kiss His feet, and taking
Him up in thine arms, in silence thou shalt have
joy in Him for a little space. And at last, it may
be, He will say to thee — Leave hath been given us
to return to our own land, and to-morrow we must
depart hence : in a good hour hast thou come, for
thou shalt go back in our company. And with
glad promptness thou shalt make reply that great is
thy joy thereat, for that thou desirest to follow Him
whithersoever He fareth ; and thou shalt take
delight in this manner of colloquy with Him. (I
said to thee just now, that it is very profitable to
ponder in this sort matters that seem childish;
afterwards they lead us to greater things.) And
then He will conduct thee to His Mother, and
honour thee with all courtesy. And for thy part
thou shalt fall upon thy knees and do her reverence,
honouring likewise the holy old man Joseph ; and
with them thou shalt abide in quiet."
Does this seem more like the contemplation of
the simple Cure of Ars than of a Doctor of the
INTRODUCTION 15
Church y If so, it may help to correct our false
notion that contemplation is something very deep
and difficult, fit only for Carthusians and Carmelites,
and beyond the reach of ordinary Christians in the
world.
Hear, too, how St. Bernard, another Doc-tor, would
have us consider the mystery of: the Annunciation.
"Hasten, (J mothers, make haste, 0 daughters, to
the cottage of Nazareth, where the Angel is saluting
Mary. Put your ear to the door to hear what
he is saying; it may be you will get some word of
comfort for yourselves."
Surely there is encouragement for us here. Be
we as simple and as childlike as we may in our
intercourse with Jesus and Mary, we shall be left
behind by St. Bernard and St. Boiiaventure. Xotice
how St. Bonaventure warns us not to neglect to
" ponder matters that seem childish, for they lead
to greater things." Xotice too how practical is the
contemplation and prayer of these two great Doctors.
We are to " abide with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in
quiet:" to get " some word of comfort for ourselves."
The works and acts that reveal the hearts of
Jesus and Mary lead us to reflect on our own hearts
and to compare them with theirs. I say to myself —
"Is that like me? Have I acted thus'? I wish to
do so now : help me, Lord ! "
AVe may propose to ourselves as a general fruit
"to know our Lord more clearly, that we may love
Him more dearly, and follow Him more nearly,"
rejoicing with Him and his blessed Mother in the
16 INTRODUCTION
Joyful mysteries ; sympathising with, them in the
Sorrowful ; congratulating them in the Glorious.
In all learning of them how to comport ourselves
in the circumstances of our lives that resemble
theirs. We may also gather fruit from the contem
plation of the other holy persons \ve find in the
various scenes — from the reverence of Gabriel, the
devotion of Simeon and Anna, the obedience of St.
Joseph, the penitence of the good thief, the joy of
Magdalen in the Resurrection, etc.
The particular fruit we ask may be determined,
either by the mystery we t-re contemplating, which,
may exhibit some virtue in stronger relief than
others, or by the needs of the hour. Thus we may
habitually ask for humility in the first Joyful
mystery, in which we see God humbling Himself,
taking the form of a servant, and Mary humbling
herself as the handmaid of the Lord ; for zeal, or
charity to our neighbour in the mystery of the Visi
tation, which shows us our Lord hastening to bestow
on His precursor the fruits of Redemption, and His
Blessed Mother carrying out the precept, " Freely
you have received, freely give." Or we may, as we
have seen, go to our Lord or His Holy Mother to
open our hearts to them in any pressing anxiety or
trouble. A cross looms in the distance and we have
to prepare ourselves. We go to the Garden of Geth-
semaiie and to the scenes of the scourging and the
crowding with thorns. We follow our Lord along
the Way of the Cross, and stand with Mary on
Calvary, seeking in all these mysteries for the same
TNTEODUCTTON 17
fruit— patience, conformity with God's Will, a trust
in Him that no trial can shake. Before our eyes
we have the Model of perfect suffering, and the
simple, loving- contemplation of Him will conform
our hearts to His.
We may if \ve like have a different intention for
each decade — e.g., for the Holy Father, for a con
version, for the Holy Souls, and habitually connect
oin- intention with one of the mysteries, Joyful,
Sorrowful, or Glorious, that seems to bear most
conformity with it, although in even' mystery we
may find a fruit corresponding with the needs of
the hour. Christ descending on to the altar at the
time of Holy Mass finds Himself surrounded by
as many needs and troubles as there are faithful
gathered together. The Church touchingly com
mends to Him all her needy children in the words —
" And all here present whose faith and devotion
are known to Thee." The one Sacrifice offered for
all is different in its application to each. Each soul
lays its own burden and wants before the throne of
grace, and finds grace, its own needed grace, in
seasonable aid. The same in its measure is true of
the llosary. 2s o two who kneel in spirit in the
chamber of the Annunciation, at the pillar of the
Scourging, in the garden of the Resurrection, see
the mystery under the same aspect; no two put up
precisely the same prayer, or want the same grace.
Our bright hours and our hopes we can sanctify by
bringing them into contact with the Joyful mysteries :
weighed down beneath some crashing sorrow or
C
18 INTRODUCTION
anxiety, we find in the Sorrowful the support and
consolation we need : whilst the Glorious lend them
selves admirably to thanksgiving and to that best
and highest form of prayer, pure praise, in which
the view of self and its needs is lost in all-absorbing
delight in the greatness and goodness of God.
" Do you say your beads every day, Biddy ? " an
old Irishwoman was asked.
" An' is it a haythan ye'd be takin' me for ! " was
the indignant reply. " Would I be niglictin' the
Mother o' God by missin' a day? An sure an it's
twice I be sayin' it; only the first half o' the Hail
Mary the second time, an' that I give her for her
self — it's mane to be always askin', so it is."
Could we take a lesson from Biddy, any of us?
We see, then, that there are many, very many ways
of saying the Rosary. They are as various as our
different characters, needs, and circumstances. No
way will commend itself to all, or be suitable, per
haps, for the same person at all times. What we
devise for ourselves will probably help us more than
anything suggested by another. We may have
several methods which may be varied, interwoven,
set aside, as moods and seasons succeed one another.
What helps to-day may hinder to-morrow. But by
a little effort and by practice we can come to be so
at home in the scenes of our Lord's Life, as contem
plated in the Rosary, that we turn to them naturally
in every necessity, and find in them all we need.
But, it may be urged, why disturb our contempla
tion by mingling it with vocal prayer, which oftenei
INTRODUCTION 19
than not is out of keeping with the subject ? And,
on the other hand, why use holy words to the sense
of which we are not fully adverting? One answer
is that, for the generality of us, contemplation for
any length of time would be an impossibility without
the sustaining force of vocal prayer. Take away the
words, and the fifteen mysteries would cease to be
what they are to the millions of the Church's
children. Try to meditate on any one of them and
you will find this to be so. The words are to the mind
what the line is to the train — perfectly distinct, yet
keeping it on the right track. Often, however, the
words fall in with the subject of our contemplation,
and suggest the fittest of terms in which the affec
tions suggested by the mysteries may be expressed.
The intention of the Church in thus uniting mental
and vocal power is that one should help the other,
and it is only in the case of those who are absolutely
incapable of the mental part, that the Church dis
penses with it as a condition of gaining the Ilosary
indulgences.
Nevertheless, the combination is to some a real
difficulty. It is worth while, therefore, to consider
how it may be met. When the words fall in natur
ally with the subject of the mystery they will be
readily acknowledged as most helpful. But when
they do not so obviously bear upon it, are they to be
strained to bring them into relation with it ^ Are
we to try to connect each petition of the Lord's Prayer
and each phrase of the 11 ail Mary with some point in
the mystery we are considering ? To most of us such
an effort would be most irksome, not to say injurious.
20 INTRODUCTION
No doubt the several petitions of the Lord's Prayer
will vary in significance with the mystery under con
sideration, and the Hail Mary have a quite different
meaning in the chamber of the Annunciation, on the
road to Calvary, and where the Mother and Son meet
after the Resurrection. But unless the connection
between the mystery and the words be more or less
obvious, a search for it will not help us, and will in
most cases be fatal to the ends of prayer.
We may profitably follow the advice to dwell on a
word or phrase as long as it affords food for mind or
heart; or we may leave the meaning of the words
alone, and whilst reciting them give our minds wholly
to the mystery we are contemplating. For, from the
teaching of the catechism, " those do not pray well
who at their prayers think neither of God nor of what
they say," we learn that we may attend to the sense
of the words, or, without adverting to these, occupy
ourselves with God.
There are those who find a certain " irreverence in
using words so holy simply as the sands of a glass
for measuring time." But surely to accompany
meditation on the holiest of mysteries with the holiest
of words, designed to this end by the Church herself,
is no mere measuring of time; rather is it giving
to God the reasonable service of the whole being to
which the ADOS tie exhorts us.
I. -THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES
THE ANNUNCIATION
I. The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.— John i.
And in the sixth month the Angel Gabriel was sent
from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a
virgin espoused to a man whoso name was Joseph, of
the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
And the Angel, being come in, said unto her: Hail
full of grace, the Lord is with thee : blessed art tkou
among women. Who having heard was troubled at
his saying, and thought with herself what manner of
salutation this should be. And the Angel said to
her : Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with
God. Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and
shalt bring forth a Son. And thou shalt call His name
Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son
of the Most High, and the Lord God shall give unto
Him the throne of David His father: and He shall
reign in the house of Jacob for ever, and of His king
dom there shall be no end. And Mary said to the
Angel : How shall this be done, because I know not
man? And the Angel, answering, said to her: The
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of
the Most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore
also the Holy which shall be born of thee, shall be
24 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
called the Son of God. And behold thy cousin Eliza
beth she also hath conceived a son in her old age ;
and this is the sixth month with her that is called
barren, because no word shall be impossible with God.
And Mary said : Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be
it done to me according to thy word. And the Angel
departed from her. — (Luke 20-38.)
See the spot — Nazareth amid the hills. At the
bottom of a steep street — the little town above it — a
small stone building in front of a cave, the door open
ing into the chamber of the Annunciation. See our
Lady at prayer : the Angel entering and kneeling to
salute her.
II.— The Lord of all things hath loved her.— Wisd. vii.
A divine romance : the Lord of heaven and earth
offering the most sublime of alliances to a girl of four
teen: sending a suitable ambassador on such a mis
sion, one of the seven who stand before God to the
chosen Mother of God.
She must have been a wonderful girl, profoundly
interesting, even from a simply natural point of view.
Her own words show her to have been steeped in the
history and traditions of her race. Its sacred lore had
been her meditation from childhood. The promises
" to Abraham and to our fathers " filled her imagina
tion and heart. And as a Jewish maiden she longed,
above all private and personal blessings, for His com
ing who was to be the glory of Israel.
The intercourse between Mary and her Creator was
THE ANNUNCIATION 25
free, direct, uninterrupted. No obstruction of sin
or imperfection, no attachment to anything of this
world impeded the How of her affections towards Him.
Through all its avenues her soul lay open to the divine
influences. By day and by night there flowed into
it an unbroken stream of grace. Mary knew that God
had done great things for her, and she responded writh
perfect fidelity. Never a moment's faltering, never a
thought, word, or deed that fell short of His desires.
Thus, when the supreme hour of her life came, she
was ready.
\Ve read in the Scriptures how God was wont to bid
His servants prepare themselves for His special
favours. Moses was ordered to take oil' his shoes be
fore drawing near to the burning bush, and to dispose
himself by forty days' fast for converse with God on
Sinai. The lips of Isaias were cleansed that they
might declare divine things. Judith and Esther pre
pared by fasting and self-humiliation for the work
to which they were called. But when the mystery of
the Annunciation was to be announced to Mary, God
saw there was no need of any conscious preparation
on her part. He was not unmindful of what was due
to Him. He knew what His infinite dignity required
in the Mother He had chosen. And Mary's disposi
tions satisfied him. " Quern meruisti portare," whom
thou didst deserve to bear.
Unforeseen occurrence's that call upon us for im
mediate action reveal what we are. The Annuncia
tion revealed Mary. There are those who refuse to
accept the history on the ground that such self-posses-
26 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
sion and self-control in a child argues a height of
virtue, not improbable only, but superhuman and im
possible. And surely we are right in believing that
none but Mary would have stood the test. Her
midnight prayer interrupted by the salutation of an
Archangel ; the whole plan of her life reversed ; a
dignity without a parallel offered for her acceptance
— and her mind retains its balance undisturbed.
When this same Angel showed himself to Daniel,
" there remained no strength in him, and he fainted
away, and lay in a consternation upon his face."-
(Daniel 10.) Mary is troubled indeed for a little
space, but at his words, not at his appearance. She
treats with him of the advent of the long-expected
Messias, the Incarnation of the Son of God, the Ee-
demption of the human race. There is no surprise,
no elation, no protestation of unworthiness. Her sole
thought is to ascertain the Will of God, and, when this
is declared, to accept it with all it involves, because
it is His Will.
0, marvellous child, mature in the difficult virtues
to which saints at the end of their course scarcely
attain, truly thy foundations are upon the holy moun
tains, where shall thy consummation be !
III.— While all things were in quiet silence and the night was
in the midst of her course Thy Almighty Word leapt down
from Heaven. — Wisd. xviii.
The world was in peace. All things were in quiet
silence in Nazareth, in Joseph's little home, in Mary's
chamber. There was a deeper stillness than usual in
THE ANNUNCIATION 27
Mary's ever peaceful heart, for the Prince of Peace
was on His way to her. Her heart was watching and
praying as was its wont, pleading with a vehemence
of supplication such as had never risen from earth
before1 : " Send forth, 0 Lord, the Lamb, Ihe Kuler of
the earth" (Is. Hi); " 0 that Thou wouldst rend
the heavens and come down ! " (Is. 04) ; " 0 God,
make haste " (Ps. 70) ; " 0 God, be not slack ! "
(Ps. -°>9). Yet no sound broke on the stillness.
" While all things were in quiet silence Thy Almighty
Word leapt down from heaven." " Let all flesh be
silent at the presence of the Lord ; for He is risen up
out of His holy habitation." — (Zach. 2.) And Mary
bowed herself down to adore, for God had come : " the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." — (John
!.)•
All things are in quiet silence around the altar,
priest and people awaiting the daily Advent. " Be
silent before the face of the Lord God, for the Lord
hath prepared a Victim." — (Soph. 1.) In the hush
He comes as He came at Xazareth. The Word made
flesh dwells among us. And like Mary, we fall down
and adore.
0 Prince of Peace, 0 Word of God, let there be
quiet silence in my soul when in Holy Communion
Thou comest to dwell with me. Let there be quiet
in my memory and in my imagination. Let my
senses be held in check, and the sights and sounds of
earth be banished for the brief moments of Thy stay.
Lay Thy hand upon my troubled heart, Say to its
passions, its cares, its restless desires: "Peace, be
28 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
still !" that in the stillness I may hear what the Lord
God will speak in me.
IV.— The Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a virgin espoused
to a man whose name was Joseph, and the virgin's name
was Mary.— Luke i.
(1) See Mary at prayer; notice her stillness, her
reverence, her application.
(2) See the Angel entering ; note his attitude as he
says : " Hail, full of grace ! "
(3) See Mary troubled, but preserving her pre
sence of mind ; not interrupting, not answering ;
finding out the character of the message before
committing herself.
(4) Note the admirable delicacy and prudence of
her questions and her answers.
(5) Observe how absolutely she effaces self, seek
ing one thing only — to know God's good pleasure.
(6) Watch with the eyes of faith the scene around
this girl of fourteen — patriarchs, prophets, and
kings, her ancestors, the saints of the ancient
covenant, look upon her with paternal affection,
admiration, and hope. The angelic hosts expect the
"Fiat" that is to repair their ranks. The Eternal
Trinity awaits her consent, to carry into effect the
decree for the redemption of man.
(7) Hear the worship, self-abasement, obedience,
thankfulness, abandonment to God, in her " Ecce
ancilla Domini."
(8) Adore with Gabriel, with the whole angelic
THE ANNUNCIATION 29
host, with all saints of the Old and New Covenants
the Word made flesh.
(9) Rejoice at the infinite glory God begins to
receive from One of our race.
(10) Invite Him who came to Mary to come to you
in Hol Communion. "Come Lord Jesus!"
V. — The Most High hath sanctified his own
tabernacle. — Ps. xlv.
fourteen years and full of grace,
A shrine so fair,
That God must needs content Himself
By dwelling there.
0 wondrous child, sole confidant
Of the Most High,
Sole arbiter with Him, of our
Dread destiny,
Speak ! mid creation's silence be
Thy " Fiat" heard;
Its swift response, thy God Himself,
The Eternal Word.
VI.— My heart delighted in her.— Ecclus. li.
(1) Thou art all fair, 0 my love, and there is not
a spot in thee (Cant. 4).
(2) Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day
of thy creation (K/echiel 28).
One is My dove, My perfect one is but one
(Cant. 6).
30 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
(3) Hearken, 0 daughter, and see and incline thy
ear . . . and the King shall greatly desire thy
beauty, for He is the Lord thy God (Ps. 44).
(4) Behold the joy that cometh to thee from God !
(Baruch 4).
(5) Behold the Lord God shall come ! (Isaiaa 40).
(6) Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty
(Isaias 33).
(7) My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit
liath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because he hath
regarded the humility of His handmaid ; for behold
from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
Because He that is mighty hath done great things to
me, and holy is His name (Luke 1).
(8) Joy is come upon me from the Holy One
(Baruch 4).
(9) I will be glad and rejoice in Thee : I will sing
to thy name, 0 Thou Most High (Ps. 9).
(10) I will rejoice in the Lord : and I will joy
in God my Jesus (Habacuc 3).
THE VISITATION
I.— Whithersoever she entereth God will give a
blessing. — Ecclus. iv.
And Mary rising up in those days, wont into the
hill count ry with haste into a city of Juda. And
slit1 entered into the house of Zachary, and saluted
Elizabeth. And it eame to pass that when Elizabeth
heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in
her womb. And Elizabeth was tilled with the Holy
Ghost. And she cried out with a loud voice, and
said — blessed art them among1 women, and blessed is
the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For behold as soon as the voice of thy salutation
sounded in my oars, the infant in my womb leaped
for joy. And blessed art thou that hast believed,
because those things shall be accomplished that were
spoken to thee by the Lord. And Mary said— My
soul doth magnify the Lord: and my spirit hath
rejoiced in God my Saviour (Luke 1).
See the hilly road from Xazareth to Hebron. The
house of Zachary and Elizabeth. Our Lady on her
journey, and at the moment she greets Elizabeth.
See the aged saint sinking on her knees before the
32 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
Mother of her Lord. Hear the sweet tones of the
Magnificat.
II.— Mary went with haste into the hill country.— Luke i.
Many reasons might have exempted Our Lady
from this visit of charity. Many difficulties stood
in the way. But faithful to every impulse of grace,
she never took difficulties into account when there
was question of accomplishing the Will of God.
However uphill her journey through life — and it
was uphill from Bethlehem to Calvary — she went
forward with a simplicity and strength of purpose
that never faltered. Do I go with haste into hilly
country when duty or charity calls me thither?
God is never outdone in generosity. He re
wards abundantly even here those who prefer His
service to their own satisfaction, or rather, who make
His Will their own. What consolations He had
here for Mary and for those dear to her. If I try
to forget myself for His sake, I shall find him going
out of His way to prepare for me sweet surprises.
Let me trust Him. Let me taste and see that the
Lord is sweet.
What compensation for the fatigues of the journey
must the Blessed Mother have found in the presence
of her Son. If my road like hers lies uphill, why
do I not find strength and comfort in Jesus, present
with me always by sanctifying grace, and present
Body and Blood and Soul and Divinity as often as I
desire — as really present as He was with Mary !
THE VISITATION 33
Had I l)een in her company and so near to Christ,
should I have found the road over rugged and
tedious? How is it that my quartor-of-an-hour's
thanksgiving after Communion seems so long? 0
Mother of God, got me something of thy faith and
thy love. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us
sinners now.
If the saints have revealed Christ in the whole
tenour of their lives, so as to be "other Christs,"
how must He have shone forth in Mary, and worked
through her means during her stay with Elizabeth.
Oh that in virtue of my Communions He would live
and work in me ! That he would make me kind in
my thoughts, in my words, in my looks, in my
listening, in the tone of my voice, in my offers of
help, in my visits, in my interpretations ; that I
could live by Him, speak by Him, work through
Him, be in my little measure His instrument as
Mary was ! Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us
sinners now.
III. — Her conversation hath no bitterness, nor her company
any tediousness, but joy and gladness.— Wisd. viii.
Consider the conversation of the two holy cousins.
How interesting, edifying, profitable, it was. Inter
esting, as dealing with the most momentous ques
tion of that ago and of every age— the fulfilment of
the promises of God, the coming of His Son upon
the earth for the redemption of all nations. Edify
ing and profitable, because not occupied with trivi-
I)
34 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
alities — mere chit-chat, the retailing of news, the
shortcomings of others — like so many conversations
of even good people, but elevating and helpful, pro
moting directly or indirectly the glory of God.
It was not all on the lines of the Magnificat:
there were tender greetings interchanged and words
of affectionate solicitude. But with God so
near, in what direction must their thoughts and
their words have been ever tending? Where could
their hearts be but \vith their treasure ?
What is my conversation like ? Presuming it to
be harmless, is this its only merit? When the
topics of the hour or of daily life are discussed after
the ordinary fashion, do I ever strike a higher note,
or by a word of sympathy or encouragement draw
forth the riches hidden in the heart of another ?
Mary's heart wras full, but it needed the loving
congratulations of her cousin to unlock its treasures
and give the Magnificat to the world.
I will ask our Lady to watch over and to bless my
intercourse with others. Holy Mary, Mother of
God, pray for us sinners now.
IV. — In her is the spirit of understanding, holy, active,
sweet. — Wisd. vii.
See our Lady on her journey to Hebron — leaving
her poor home in Galilee, a despised province, whose
people were uncouth and of ill-repute — and making
her way to Judea, the home of all the culture Pales
tine possessed, where were the Temple and the
THE VISITATION 35
schools of the learned. Xachary and Elizabeth, if
not wealthy, were in easy circumstances, persons of
consideration, not in their own little town only,
but in the Holy City, when the Temple services took
them thither. Mary, a poor girl from the country,
advanced timidly, ignorant of God's designs in this
visit, thinking only of carrying out the inspiration
He had given her.
Let us look at her in these last days of her girl
hood, before the responsibilities and anxieties of
motherhood have begun. Nothing that conies from
the hand of God is so beautiful as the soul of a
child. What must this child have been, whose face
reflected the innocence of her soul and the beauty
of her character, whose every word and movement
by its charm and grace gave her an attractive
ness unsurpassed till then, and only to be surpassed
by the attractiveness of her Child who was God!
To look on her would have made our hearts beat
high.
(1) Notice how the immediate effect of God's
presence is to enkindle zeal for souls.
(2) The sanctification of the Precursor was at
tached by God to Mary's salutation. To this end
He inspired her to visit her cousin. How much
depends on fidelity to the whisperings of grace !
(•')) Fidelity brooks no delay. Mary went in
haste.
(4) In haste, not in hurry. The God of peace
entrusts His work to peaceful souls. "The Lord is
not in a whirlwind " (•'> Kings 19).
36 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
(5) Mary salutes Elizabeth. The higher in dig
nity is the readier with the graceful acts of courtesy
that charity inspires. Do I stand upon my dignity
overmuch, to the detriment of charity?
(6) What trivial acts God uses for His purposes !
Mary's affectionate greeting was the channel of
grace to the Baptist !
(7) With the instinct of humility Mary hides
her secret even from such a kindred spirit as
Elizabeth's.
(8) But finding that God had revealed it for the
consolation of both, she refers all praise to Him
with the instinct of love.
(9) In the Magnificat she pours forth her soul
in the most glorious act of praise earth had ever
heard.
(10) And then she descends to little, lowly, house
hold duties — handmaid, not of the Lord only but of
Elizabeth, servant of a servant of God. Am I in any
degree like her?
Freely have you received, freely give.— Matt. x.
Hasten o'er the mountains,
Unto Hebron be
Bearer of the Blessing
Gabriel brought to thee :
Sing thy song of gladness
For a world restored,
Mouthpiece of creation,
Magnify the Lord !
THE VISITATION 37
V.— Charity is kind —I. Cor. xiii.
(1) Let us love one another, for charity is of God
(1 John 4).
(2) Let us not love in word nor in tongue, hut in
deed and in truth (1 John >}).
(3) Loving one another with the charity of
brotherhood, with honour preventing one another.
communicating to the necessities of the
saints (Rom. 12).
(4) Rejoice with them that rejoice, weep with
them that weep. Xot minding high things, but
consenting to the humble (Rom. 12).
(5) Freely have you received, freely give (Matth.
10).
(6) According to thy ability be merciful. If thou
have much give abundantly (Tobias 4).
(7) He gave to every one of them commandment
concerning his neighbour (Ecclus 17).
(8) Every one shall help his neighbour, and shall
say to his brother: Be of good courage (Isaias 41).
(9) Hast thou heard a word against thy neigh
bour, let it die within thee. And believe not every
word. There is one that slippeth with the tongue,
but not from the heart. For who is there that hath
not offended with the tongue? (Ecclus. 19).
(10) God gave to Solomon wisdom and under
standing exceeding much, and largeness of heart as
the sand that is on the seashore (III. Kin^s 1).
THE NATIVITY
I. — This is God, our God, unto eternity, and for ever
and ever. — Ps. xlvii.
And it came to pass that in those days there went
out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that the whole
world should be enrolled. This enrolling was first
made by Cyrinus the governor of Syria. And all went
to be enrolled, every one into his own city. And Joseph
also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth
into Judea, to the city of David, which is called
Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family
of David, to be enrolled with Mary his espoused wife,
who was with child. And it came to pass, that when
they were there, her days were accomplished, that
she should be delivered. And she brought forth her
first-born Son, and wrapped Him up in swaddling
clothes, and laid Him in a manger, because there
was no room for Him in the inn. And there were in
the same country shepherds watching, and keeping
the night watches over their flocks. And behold
an Angel of the Lord stood by them, and the
brightness of God shone round about them, and they
feared with a great fear. And the Angel said unto
them : Fear not : for behold I bring you good tidings
THK NATIVITY 39
of great joy, that shall be in all the people; for this
dav is horn to you a Saviour, who is Christ tho Lord,
in the city <>i David. And this shall be a sign unto
you: you shall iind the Infant wrapped in swaddling
clothes, and laid in a manger. And suddenly there
was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly
army, praising God and saying: Glory to God in
the highest: and on earth peace to men of good-will.
And it came to pass after the Angels departed
from them into heaven, the shepherds said to
one another: Let us go over to Bethlehem, and let
us see this word that is come to pass which the
Lord hath shewed to us. And they came with haste ;
and thev found Mary and Joseph, and the Infant
lying in the manger. And seeing, they understood
the word that had been spoken to them concerning
this Child. And all that heard wondered: and at
those things that were told them by the shep
herds. Hut Mary kept all these words, pondering
them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glori
fying and praising God, for all the things they had
heard and seen, as it was told unto them (Luke 2).
See the cave stable, dark, cold, bare. See the
moisture trickling down the walls. Feel the bleak
wind of the December night as it rushes up the slope
and sweeps in, searching its every nook. See where
on one side of the unprotected place, tho manger
stands. On a few handfuls of straw, such as might
be found in a wayside, neglected stable, the Infant
lies.
40 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
II.— How hath He not with Him given us all things?— Rom viii
He lays Himself down on the straw in the coldest
hour of the winter's night. His little limbs are
trembling, and there are tears of pain in His eyes.
But He stretches out His arms to us, and the smile
on His lips says :
Here I am. I am come at last. Take Me and do
with Me what you will. I am come to be your little
servant, to be of use to you in any way that I can.
You need a Redeemer : I will redeem you when I
am old enough. I am too small to be crucified yet,
but when I am grown up I will shed the last drop
of My blood for you. In a week's time I will give
some to show you I am ready to give all.
You need a physician, for you are sick. I have
medicine for every pain and disease ; I will cure
you.
You need a master. I will teach you with My
words as soon as I can speak, and meantime if you
come to My crib, come up close enough, look long
enough, you will learn many things from Me even
now.
You need a companion and a friend. That is
just what I have come for — to be a companion that
will never leave your side, a friend who will love you
dearly, never tire of you, never weary of listening to
your troubles, always be thinking of you ; who will
watch over you, share your joys and your sorrows ;
advise, warn, encourage you, provide for you in
every need.
THE NATIVITY 41
You want food. Even ill is [ will bo to you. I
will come into your heart to give you strength to
work out your salvation grandly ; to make you grow
up like Me ; to make it easy and pleasant to do even
hard things, things that cost, things that hurt.
You want a brother. I have come all the way
from heaven to be your Brother. I have taken your
nature that I may be like you in all things. Look
at Me and see. I have hands, and feet, and eyes,
and heart like you, that I may feel as you feel, bear
pain as you have to bear it, work as you must do,
and be an example to you in working and in suffer
ing. I am your Brother, come to take you by the
hand and lead you to My Father, who will love you
for My sake.
Yes, I am all yours, do with Me what you like.
Will you find it in your heart to hurt Me y I know
you will. I know what your sins will cost me. I
know what is going to happen to My hands, and
feet, and side. But I am ready for it all, if only you
will let me save you, and take you back with Me
to heaven. Do not turn from Me; do not dis
appoint Mo. Listen to Me; follow Me; return Me
love for love.
III.— There was no room in the inn.— Luke ii.
Bethlehem did not rise up and thrust Him out of
its precincts as Xazareth did later. lie had to seek
outside for such shelter as a. stable could give,
simply because there was no room for Him in the
42 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
little place. It was crowded up with, other things.
Is my heart a Bethlehem?
Bethlehem was His own city. Yet there was no
room. " He came unto His own, and His own re
ceived Him not." I am His own, and He comes to
me. "Behold I stand at the door and knock." Do
I rise and open to Him ? Or do I say from behind
the closed door : " There is no room " ?
Some creature, some passion, some sin, perhaps,
disputes my heart with Thee, 0 Lord ! There is no
room.
Thou cravest a larger space in my life, in my day —
a Communion at less distant intervals, a few minutes
taken from pleasure or from trifles to visit Thy
neglected tabernacle in the neighbouring church.
But it would not be convenient, it would interfere
with my arrangements. There is no room.
How long, 0 Lord, how long ! Remember that
whilst thou waitest our consent, and wilt offer no
violence to our free will, Thou art still God, and all
power is given to Thee in heaven and in earth.
Make room for Thyself within my heart, 0 Lord !
Say in the tone of authority of days gone by : " Take
these things hence " (John 2). " Take the stumbling-
blocks out of my way " (Isaias 57). " The place is
too straight for Me, make Me room to dwell in."
(Ibid 49).
And I will make answer : " My heart is ready, 0
God, my heart is ready " (Ps. 107).
THE NATIVITY 43
IV. And the shepherds said one to another: Let us go over
to Bethlehem, and let us see this word that is come to
pass. Luke ii.
One reason why we scarcely penetrate beneath the
surface of the mysteries of our Lord's life, is the
dullness of our desires. Were we eager like the
shepherds. HTM! faithful to the leadings of grace, we
should come to understand as they did. Let us go
over to Bethlehem and see this word that is come
to pass. . . . And they came in haste. . .
And seeing, t/ia/ understood. We should understand
better if, like Daniel, we were men of desires, if we
took some trouble to concentrate our thoughts on
the truths our faith presents to us. Xo one ever
pondered mysteries like Mary, who saw further at
a glance than others have seen in a lifetime of con
templation. Her magnificent mind gave itself with
out distraction or interruption to the study of her
Babe, and lost in His greatness, cried out unceas
ingly: "Who is able to declare His works? Who
shall show forth the power of His majesty, or who
shall be able to declare His mercy ? . . . Neither
is it possible to find out the glorious works of God.
When a man hath done then shall he begin " (Ecclus.
IS).
V.— She brought forth her first-born Son, and wrapped Him
up in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger.—
Luke ii.
To whom does He trust Himself in His helpless
infancy? To Mary. There is a lesson for us here.
44 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
It was an apparent waste of time to spend so many
years in Mary's arms, on Mary's knee, when, had
He come into the world as Adam did, He might
have been teaching from the moment He began to
dwell amongst us. But He was teaching by His
actions from the first. We too must be nursed and
cared for by Mary. Our Christian life must de
velop under her protection. We must run to her,
cling to her, trust to her guidance. The first con
dition of following Jesus is to be a child of Mary.
I will ask her to care for me as she cared for Him,
to value and to love me for His sake.
VI.— My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways
My ways. — Isaias Iv.
(1) In that tiny frame dwells the fulness of man's
intelligence and the full strength of man's will. He
knows and deliberately chooses all that He finds
around him at His birth.
(2) In heaven " thousands of thousands ministered
to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand
stood before Him " (Dan. 7).
(3) On earth he is treated like the very beasts.
A cold damp shed is shelter good enough for Mary's
tender Babe. But earth's provision for Him is
also His own free choice.
(4) Why? His body, exquisitely fashioned, is
sensitive as no other child's could be to the hard
ships of His lot. Why is that lot so hard ? Why
does He deliberately seek out and draw to Himself
THE NATIVITY 45
such want and pain, when a single tour or prayer
would have redeemed usr1
(5) Because Divine Wisdom takes, not the easiest
and pleasantest, but the surest, means of at
taining Its end. How could our Master have
taught us better the lessons He came to teach !
He knows what is due to His Majesty, yet
He bespeaks what to our seeming is so un
worthy of Him, because it is not our redemption
only that He has come to secure, but our hearts.
If with all He has done for me I have so little love
for Him ; if with the sight of Him before me, suffer
ing from the moment of His birth, I find it so hard
to bear the least pain or inconvenience, what should
I have been without the spur of His example ? Poor
little Infant Jesus ! He knew that He could not
do too much, lie could not begin to suffer too early
to win the love of some of us. Has He won my
love yet ?
((>) Bethlehem is the reversal of the world's
judgments respecting honours, riches, convenience,
comforts.
(7) Bethlehem is the revelation of God's thoughts
in regard to poverty, privation, oblivion, pain.
(8) Bethlehem is a startling indication of the way
in which He is going to redeem the world and lead
us back to the heaven selfishness had lost.
0 Babe of Bethlehem, rectify niy thoughts and my
ways by Thine !
46 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
VII.- Who is this?— Isaias Ixiii.
Let us kneel by the young Mother and see what
she saw that first Christmas night.
(1) She saw lying on straw a weak and trembling
child. And she adored Him as the Lord of heaven
and earth, who established the mountains, and holds
the waters in the hollow of His hand.
(2) She saw His frail beauty, and knew Him to
be the most mighty God. "I am, I am the Lord,
and there is no Saviour besides Me "(Isaias 43).
(3) He was but an hour old, and she worshipped
Him as the Ancient of Days, begotten before the
eternal years.
(4) He was her Babe. He belonged to her as no
child ever belonged to its mother. Yet she was His
creature and depended on Him absolutely. All her
graces were the gift of those tiny hands ; all were
purchased by the blood that flowed through those
delicate veins and vivified that Heart.
(5) "I am the Lord, I am the Lord." This was
the truth ever present, ever new to her. She was
lost in astonishment that the Most High should be
so lowly, that One so mighty should be so sweet.
She bowed herself down to adore Him. She took
Him into her arms and pressed her trembling lips
against His brow.
(6) When the coldness of our hearts chills even
ourselves, what a resource we have in Mary's wor
ship and in Mary's praise !
(7) What a consolation that she represented us in
THE NATIVITY 47
Bethlehem ; that we may appropriate and offer to
the Infant Jesus the treasures of His Mother's heart.
(8) Share with us, Mother of God, thy faith and
wonder, and delight beside the manger. Win and
warm our hearts by the attractiveness of thy Babe.
" The Lord is great and exceedingly to be praised :
the Lord is little and exceedingly to be loved."
VIII.— Mary kept all these words, pondering them in
her heart. — Luke ii.
O blessed eyes that saw Him come at last,
The Promised One,
0 happy arms that held enfolded fast
The Eternal Son :
0 heart that stored the memories of that night
So sweet and stern,
Teach me to ponder Bethlehem aright,
To look and learn !
IX.— Fear not: Behold your God.— Isaias xl.
(1) Lo, this is our God ; we have waited for Him
and He will save us. . . . we have patiently
waited for Him ; we shall rejoice and be joyful in
His salvation (Isaias .'Jo).
('2) This is God, our God, unto eternity and for
ever and ever (Ps. 47).
(3) In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead
corporally (Col. 2).
48 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
(4) 0 God, how great are Thy works, Thy thoughts
are exceeding deep (Ps. 91).
(5) Truly Thou art a hidden God, the God of
Israel, the Saviour (Isaias 45).
(6) Thou alone art my King and my God (Ps.
40).
(7) The eternal King of worlds (Tobias 13).
(8) Come and reign over us (Judges 9).
(9) Come and teach us what we ought to do
(Judges 13).
THE PRESENTATION
I. — Blessed art Thou in the holy Temple of Thy
glory. — Dan. iii.
And after the days of the purification of Mary, ac
cording to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they
carried Jesus to Jerusalem, to present Him to the
Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord : Every
male opening the w<nnl) shall be called holy to the Lord ;
and to offer a sacrifice according as it is written in
the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves, or two
young pigeons. And behold there was a man in
Jerusalem named Simeon, and this man was just
and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel ;
and the Holy Ghost was in him. And he had re
ceived an answer from the Holy Ghost, that he
should not see death, "before he had seen the Christ
of the Lord. And he came by the Spirit into the
Temple. And when His parents brought in the
Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of
the law, he also took Him in his arms, and blessed
God, and said: Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant,
0 Lord, according to Thy word, in peace: because
my eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou
hast prepared before the face of all peoples ; a light
E
50 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of
Thy people Israel.
And His father and mother were wondering
at those things which were spoken concerning
Him. And Simeon blessed them and said to
Mary His Mother: Behold this Child is set for the
fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and
for a sign which shall be contradicted ; and thy own
soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts
thoughts may be revealed. And there was one
Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the
tribe of A,ser ; she was far advanced in years, and
had lived with her husband seven years from her
virginity ; and she was a widow until fourscore and
four years ; who departed not from the Temple, by
fastings and prayers serving night and day. Now
she at the same hour coming in, confessed to the
Lord, and spoke of Him to all that looked for the
redemption of Israel (Luke 2).
See the Jewish mothers making their way up the
Temple steps, their babes in their arms Hear the
bleating of the lambs, the cooing of the doves. See
the blessed Mother and her divine Child : St. Joseph
by her side; in his hand the wicker cage with the
doves, and five shekels (about fifteen shillings of our
money) for the redemption of the Child. Look at
the face of Mary at the moment she offers her
Son to God.
See Mary and Joseph and the prophetess Anna
gathered round holy Simeon who holds in his arms
the Christ of the Lord.
THE PRESENTATION 51
II. Bless the Lord all ye servants of the Lord, who stand in
the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our
God. Ps. cxxxiii.
Let me learn a lesson from each one in this
blessed group.
(1) THE DIVINE CHILD.
The greatest, of all, the Creator and Lord of all, is
small, weak, silent, dependent. Scripture ridicules
the impotent gods of the heathen : to what a state
of helplessness has love reduced the true God here!
Is there anything in that little face to reveal to us
the treasures of His Heart Its vast design for the
glory of His Father and the salvation of men; Its
steadfastness of purpose that neither suffering nor
ingratitude will overcome ; Its generosity that only
Calvary and the perpetual immolation of the
Eucharist will satisfy? It is the need of giving
Himself unreservedly to those whom He loves that
brings Him to the Temple to-day : " Sacrifice and
oblation Thou wouldst not, then said I, Behold I
come " (Ps. o9). He offers Himself to a life of hard
ship and persecution, to a death of agony and shame.
And makes His offering with the eagerness of love
that counts no cost: "He hath rejoiced as a giant
to run His way " (Ps. 18). Sacrifice is the necessity
of love, its instinct, its language, its food, its very
life. 0 little Babe, do I recognise by this mark my
love of Thee?
52 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
(2) THE BLESSED MOTHER.
Mary gave a gift to God such as had never before
been offered to Him, greater than which no man
can give. And God gave her in return the assur
ance of a lifelong sorrow. His reward seems
strange to us. Yet were not trial and pain gifts
worthy of God, could He have chosen such a
moment for sending them to His well - beloved
daughter ! If His Heart went out to the widow
who cast her two mites into the treasury, because
she had " cast in all she had, even her whole living,"
how would He prize the generosity of Mary, who in
offering her Son gave what was more to her than
life. Those who know Him understand His ways.
Mary was not disturbed. The sudden change in her
life touched neither her peace nor her trust, but the
perfection of her submission did not deaden her
pain. The sword made its way down to the
depths of her soul, to remain there till it was drawn
forth on Easter Day by the same hand that had
plunged it therein ; drawn forth to make way for the
floods of joy that filled it to overflowing. How God
loves to outdo in generosity! Who has ever re
gretted in the end having given Him a gift that
cost !
See Mary in her sorrow, not downcast, not self-
concentrated ; ready as before to enter into and
soothe the trifling troubles of others. God could
not trust me in my youth with the knowledge of
the heaviest cross that would befall me. I should
THE PRESENTATION 53
bo soured, if not crushed. But Mary Ho could trust.
She Left the Temple knowing1 what \\ius in store
for her and her Divine Son. And Joseph found her
no different in her home life, unless it were that she
seemed sweeter than ever, tenderer even than before
with those in sorrow, because of the fellow-feeling
that came to her from the pressure of her own cross.
See her taking the road home ; her Child pressed
close to her heart. She is to tend and rear Him as
a lamb for sacrifice ; to watch Him grow up in His
loveliness; and in the fulness of His beauty to give
Him up to torture and to death. And this for me.
0 Mother of God, blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
To measure love we reckon up
Its sacrificed :
Who, then, shall gauge the charity
That offered— Christ !
That gave Him to a hunted life,
A death of shame.
To win, alas ! from many a heart
Love but in name.
(3) THE FOSTER-FATHER.
St. Joseph heard the words of Simeon. How
tenderly he must have sympathised with Marv.
How do I behave towards those on whom a sudden
sorrow has fallen ?
54 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
(4) SIMEON.
Simeon's desires won for him the promise that
he should not die till he had seen the Christ of the
Lord. An eager heart such as his is very pleasing
to God. The longing to see our Lord, to know Him
intimately, to love Him dearly, is met by the answer :
" Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty "
(Isaias 3-'>).
" 0 Daniel, I am come to thee because thou art a
man of desires," said Gabriel. And again: "Fear
not, 0 man of desires, take courage and be strong "
(Dan 10).
Simeon waited patiently day after day, perhaps
for many years. There was nothing to show he was
nearing the realisation of his hopes. No Angel came
on the morning of the Presentation to announce the
happiness that was at hand. What if that day he
had failed to be where duty called him ! What if
on the morrow he had lain dying, and, complaining
to God of the non-fulnlment of the promise for which
he had lived, had heard the answer : " The hour of
the morning sacrifice yesterday was My hour ; My
Christ awaited you in the Temple, but you were not
watching."
I too have desires of higher things for myself and
for others. I too hope and pray through long years,
relying on the promise : " Ask and you shall re
ceive " (Matth. 7). " Know ye that no one hath
hoped in the Lord and hath been confounded "
THE PRESENTATION 55
(Ecelus 2). Hut I must do my part, not only by
desires and by prayer, but by faithful service like the
old man Simeon.
AVhat did Simeon feel as lie held in his arms
•md pressed to his heart "the Christ of the Lord
When his eyes saw, dimly through their tears, "the
Light of the Gentiles and the glory of Israel
same Christ I hold and embrace after Holy Com
munion And if my eyes do not yet behold Him, I
have the assurance': " Blessed are they who have
not scon and have believed." " Thine eyes shall see
the Kin- in Hi* beauty." Shall not this faith
and this hope enkindle something of Simeon's love >
If still my heart is cold, let me offer to Him who
accepts desires as deeds, the love of the old mans
heart that day.
(5) ANNA.
Anna was a dweller in the Temple, known and
revered by all who frequented it, so constant was
her attendance, so reverent her worship, so fervent
her speech when she spoke of the Expectation of
Israel. Yet what was there to draw her to the
Temple Courts? Had every day seen a Presentation
of Christ, as our daily Mass, her assiduity would have
been explicable, would have been called for. Is my
attendance in church assiduous, is my worship re
verent? Every morning Christ is there presented
to the Father: is not my presence and my homage
called for?
56 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
Anna had no promise. But God is better than His
word, as we shall find out in heaven. He loves to
take us hy surprise. He loves to answer even the
unspoken desires of the heart. He delights to fill
our cup of joy to the brim. It is not likely that
such a dweller in the Temple would be unknown to
a kindred spirit like Simeon's. Perhaps she knew
of the promise to him and trusted to have a share
in his joy, and therefore departed not from the
Temple, by fasting and prayer serving day and night
She was near at the moment of the Presentation, as if
she kept the old man in sight, to be at hand when
his hour should come, ready to receive the over
flowing of his grace should God vouchsafe it to her.
How could God refuse to satisfy that longing for
Himself which is such perfect homage, and of which,
alas, He finds so little !
Anna spoke of the Child to all who looked for
the redemption of Israel. Out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaks. Because her heart
was full of Him she could not but speak of Him.
Do I want to know of what my heart is full ? Of
what do I love to speak ?
III.— Now Thou dost dismiss Thy servant, O Lord,
according to Thy word in peace. — Luke ii.
The special fruit of the Viaticum is peace. Our
Lord comes to soothe and strengthen His failing
servant ; to befriend him when all other friends
fail ; to pass with him through the dark valley of
THE PRESENTATION 57
the shadow of death. He Himself is the promised
salvation, dear pledge in the Host of the near pre
sence, the unveiled Face, the familiar intercourse
that is at hand. How should not Thy servants, 0
Lord Jesus, clasping Thee, held fast by Thee amid
the perils of death, depart this life in peace !
IV. —And on the fortieth day they carried Him to the Temple
to present Him to the Lord.— Luke ii.
(1) Look into Mary's immaculate heart and see
the joy with which she presents to God the one
offering worthy of Him which that magnificent
Temple had seen.
(2) See St. Joseph standing by ; understanding the
significance of that Presentation ; uniting his sacri
fice with the oblation of Jesus and Mary; studying
and imitating their obedience, their generosity, their
sinking of self.
(-3) See holy Simeon coming in as was his wont;
coming in quietly for an ordinary visit, little think
ing that the desire of his life is to be satisfied this
day.
(4) Watch Our Lady as full of joy she places her
Divine Child in the arms of the old man, not sus
pecting the sword of sorrow he is to give her in
return.
(5) Notice the different graces God has in store
for two of His favourites — a joyful surprise for one,
an unexpected trial for the other, and the trial is
for his best-beloved.
58 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
(6) Note, too, how God's promises are often con
ditional, dependent on fidelity. Simeon had re
ceived an answer from the Holy Ghost that he should
not see death before he had seen the Christ of the
Lord. But he had to watch, and to follow the lead
ings of grace, for he knew neither the day nor the
hour when his Lord would come. "And he was led
by the Spirit into the Temple." Had he been un
faithful that morning, he would have missed his
grace. Who knows what I may miss if through
mere laziness I stay away from daily Mass ! That
conversion, that favour I have prayed for so long,
may be in store for me in some week-day mass.
(7) Look at Simeon holding the Divine Child in
that embrace which was his First and last Com
munion. Admire the fruits of that Communion as
seen in his canticle :
Humility—" Thy servant."
Hope and trust—" Dismiss in peace."
Faith — " My eyes have seen Thy salvation."
Love — "He took Him into his arms and blessed
God."
(8) "May my soul die the death of the just,"
the death of holy Simeon, whose life was lived for
the sight of Jesus.
(9) " And niy last end," my last Communion,
" be like unto his."
THE PRESENTATION 59
V. He had received an answer from the Holy Ghost that he
should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the
Lord. Luke ii.
(1) I will look for Thy Salvation, 0 Lord ((ion.
49).
Who will grant that my request may come and
that God may give me what I look for? (Job 0).
(2) Hear my prayer, 0 Lord, and my supplica
tion, give ear to my tears (Ps. -58).
(3) The Lord is my portion . . . therefore will I
wait for Him (Lament. 3).
(4) Expect the Lord, do manfully, and let thy
heart take courage, and wait thou for the Lord
(Ps. 20).
(5) Delight in the Lord, and lie will give thee the
requests of thy heart (Ps. 30).
(0) The Lord waiteth that lie may have mercy
on thee. . . . blessed are all they that wait for
Him (Isaias 30).
Thou shalt know that I am the Lord, for they
shall not be confounded that wait for Me (Isaias
49).
(7) I am sent to thee, thou man of desires (Dan.
10).
(8) With expectation I have waited for the Lord,
and He was attentive to me (Ps. 39).
(9) Art thou not the Lord our God whom we have
looked for? (Jerem. 14).
(10) The Lord is good to them that hope in Him,
to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good to wait with
silence for the salvation of God (Lament. 3).
THE FINDING IN THE TEMPLE
I.— I found Him whom my soul loveth : I held Him and I
will not let Him go.— Cant. iii.
And His parents went every year to Jerusalem at
the solemn day of the Pasch. And when He was
twelve years old, they going up into Jerusalem
according to the custom of the feast, and having ful
filled the days, when they returned, the Child Jesus
remained in Jerusalem, and His parents knew it not.
And thinking that He was in the company, they came
a day's journey, and sought Him among their kins
folk and acquaintance. And, not finding Him, they
returned into Jerusalem seeking Him.
And it came to pass that after three days they
found Him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the
doctors, hearing them and asking them questions.
And all that heard Him were astonished at His wis
dom and His answers. And seeing Him they won
dered. And His Mother said to Him : Son, why hast
Thou done so to us ? behold Thy father and I have
sought Thee sorrowing. And He said to them : How
is it that you sought Me ? Did you not know that I
must be about My Father's business ? And thev
understood not the word that He spoke unto them.
TI I E FINDING IN THE TEMPLE 61
And lie went down with them, and came to Naza
reth, and was subject to them. And His Mother
kepi all these words in her heart.— Luke 2.
1. See the Galilee caravan, numbering many
thousands, on its way home, after its first night's halt
at Beeroth. Two pilgrims have separated themselves
from it, and with sad yet peaceful faces are on their
way back to Jerusalem.
2. See how, footsore and weary, they thread the
narrow streets of the Holy City, scanning every party
that they pass, making inquiries, suil'ering sorely,
yet considerate for others, and at peace.
3. See them on the third day entering the Temple;
making their way to a hall in the Court of the
Women; coming upon a group of doctors; hearing
a child's voice ; pressing forward ; seeing the Child
Jesus; meeting Uis eye and Ilis smile.
II. In the streets and the broad ways I will seek Him
whom my soul loveth ; I sought Him and found Him
not.- Cant. iii.
AVhere did Mary find her Divine Child? In the
Temple. The tirst time she sought Him there y
Assuredly not. She knew too well where His Heart
was likely to lead Him, not to have gone straight to
the Temple, when, with weary feet and anxious
hearts, she and Joseph returned to Jerusalem seeking
Him. Where should He be but in His Father's
house:' Not once only, but again and again during
that dreary time of desolation she sought Him there.
82 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
And there slie found Him when the days of anguish
were over. And there she had the embrace and the
smile that made up to her for all her pain.
We turn instinctively to the Tabernacle in times of
inward trial. And we do well. Where should we
go in our trouble but to the God of all consolation?
But if He does not show Himself to us as such, if the
answer to prayer does not make haste to come, we
lose heart, and leave off praying. We tire so soon.
Our desires are so faint that almost at the outset we
are ready to give over our search, and sit down and
bemoan ourselves. Not so did Mary and Joseph.
None ever sought Christ in the midst of such darkness
and desolation as did those two faithful hearts. And
none ever sought with greater diligence. Whatever
place in the Holy City offered the smallest chance of
finding Him, there they might be seen; going over
the same ground a score of times ; putting their ques
tion again and again; battling against the anguish
and sinking of heart that grew with each hour of dis
appointment; bearing their trouble bravely; re
signed to God's Will, but suffering none the less for
the perfection of their endurance.
It was to serve us as an example that Mary and
Joseph sought wearily for Christ. We learn from
ancient records that our Lord's Apostles and first
followers were wont to speak of Him amongst them
selves as " our Teacher." As a good teacher He has
so planned His life and actions as to be able to offer
Himself to us as a model in what is hardest and most
painful in our way to heaven. Where He cannot
THE FINDING IN THE TEMPLE 63
ilimself be our example, lie gives us as Ills substi
tute the most apt of His disciples. So we have Mary
and .Joseph showing- us with what patience and perse
verance we must seek Christ when we have lost the
joy of II is sensible presence. How we must search
everv place where we are likely to find Him ; examine
our various duties and amusements to see if anything
in them is keeping- Him from us; go often to the
church to seek Him there, and to gain there the cour
age to persist in our search until we find.
III. — Show me Thy face. — Cant. ii.
I compassionate thee, blessed Mother, in thy desola
tion. Help me in my days of darkness and dis
couragement. The anguish of those three days did
not disturb thy peace of soul, thy confidence in God,
thy resignation to His Will. Get me the grace to be
drawn closer to Him by trial. Thy loss of Christ was
without the smallest fault on thy part. Let me never
lose Him by mortal sin. And let me hate all deliber
ate venial sin and negligence that builds up a barrier
between my soul and Him.
Sometimes I forfeit the sense of His nearness and
the freedom and happiness of my intercourse with
Him by carelessness in my service of Him, in my
daily duties, or by infidelity 1<> grace. Sometimes I
am left in darkness on account of sins in the past
unatoned for. At times our Lord hides Himself, as
He hid from His dear Magdalen, that He may see
how I act when He does not seem to be by. Or He
64 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
wants me to feel how poor and needy I am when left
to myself. A time of trouble is often the harbinger
of a great grace. It is always a sign of God's love,
sent to purify and strengthen my soul, to shorten my
purgatory, to earn for me a higher place in heaven.
This thought will help me to Lear it as Mary and
Joseph bore the pain of the three days' loss, in peace,
in patient trust, in the firm faith that all things,
all things, without exception, work together unto
good for those who love God.
IV. — Son, why hast Thou done so to us? — Luke ii.
1. Mary, His Mother and confidant, whose heart
beat in perfect unison with His, was kept in ignorance
of His designs. Can I wonder if God's ways are
often mysterious to me ?
2. Because uncertainty and suspense are painful,
we think that God should exempt us from them, or
bring them quickly to an end. Mary felt both in
this mystery, and with an intensity far beyond any
suffering of ours.
3. God could have spared her this trial but did not.
If " those whom He foreknew, who according to His
purpose are called to be saints, must be made con
formable to the image of His Son," the Man of Sor
rows, how much more must the Mother of that Son
be conformed to Him?
4. Her tender pleading : " Why hast Thou done so
to us?" is like His cry on the Cross : " My God, My
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ?"
THE FINDING IN THE TEMPLE 65
-•>. And as " we have not a high-priest who cannot
have compassion on our infirmities, but one tempted
in all things like as we are without sin," (Hel). 4),
<>!)»> " able to succour them that are tempted in that
wherein He Himself hath suffered and been tempted "
(I leb. ',?), so we have a Mother and an advocate
all the more ready to succour us in our hours of dark
ness and desolation, in that she herself has suffered
the loss of Christ.
(i. Mary had no sin to expiate, no evil inclinations
to hinder her union with Christ. Yet God, in His
loving sympathy for us, decreed that she should suffer
a pain we might have thought impossible to her
weariness in seeking Christ, disappointment, heart-
sink in"-, like us, that she might feel for us.
Son, why hasl Thou done so to us?" She
knows now. When on Calvary she became our
Mother, she learned how and why her marvellous
power of sympathy had been bought.
Lord, why hast Thou done so to us? " we ask
at times when conscience does not reprehend us. And
He says to us tenderly, as to Peter : :* AVhat I do thou
knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter."
•\\hyr Hecause — apart altogether from the
fact that, having lost Him by sin, or the sense of His
presence by infidelity, we must painfully seek before
we find— there is a reason why even from II is faith
ful servants lie hides Himself for awhile:
10. Search is at once a result of love, a trial of love,
a purification of love, and the condition of love's re
ward :
F
66 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
A result of love — " Quasrens me sedisti lassus."
Wearily, 0 Lord, hast Tliou sought for me ; wearily,
if Thou wilt, yet constantly I will seek for Thee.
A trial and a purification of love — " How is it that
you sought Me ?" Have I sought the God of con
solation, or the consolations of God?
The condition of love's reward — " Seek and you
shall find." " For yet a little, and a very little while
and He that is to come will come and will not delay."
" Surely I come quickly. Amen. Come, Lord
Jesus."
I thank Thee, Lord, that she who is to soothe
Our sorest pain,
Has known the weary search for Christ,
And search in vain :
That seeking Him, with Mary we may share
Our hopes and fears,
And in the hiding of His Face, take heart
From Mary's tears.
V.— I sought Him and found Him not : I called and He
did not answer me. — Cant. v.
1. Therefore do I weep, and my eyes run down
with water, because the Comforter, the relief of my
soul, is far from me. — (Lament. 1.)
2. My tears have been my bread day and night,
whilst it is said to me daily : Where is thy God ?
(Ps. 41.)
3. Who will grant me that I might find Him?
THE FINDING IN THE TEMPLE 07
But if I go to the left hand I shall not take hold on
Him : if I turn myself to the right hand, 1 shall not
see Him. — (.Job 23.)
4. But He knoweth my way, and has tried me as
gold that passeth through the fire. My foot hath
followed His steps . . . and the words of His
mouth I have hid in my bosom. — (Ibid.)
5. I will rise and go about the city: in the streets
and the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul
loveth: i sought Him and I found Him not. — (Cant
3.)
G. The watchmen who kept the city found me :
Have you seen Him whom my soul loveth ? — (Ibid.)
7. When I had a little passed by them, I found
Him whom my soul loveth : I held Him : and I will
not let Him go. — (Ibid.)
8. I sat down under His shadow whom I desired. —
(Cant. 2.)
9. Show me Thy face, let Thy voice sound in my
ears, for Thy voice is sweet and Thy face comely -
(Ibid.)
10. My Beloved to me and I to Him . . . Till
the day break and the shadows retire. — (Ibid.)
II.— THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES
MARY AND THE PASSION
Our Lady is intimately bound up with all tho
mysteries of our Lord's life on earth. We cannot
think of the Infancy or Childhood apart from her.
We must not leave her out when we come to the
Passion. In the work lie came to do for us our
Blessed Saviour would have her help throughout. As
in His Childhood and in His Public Life, so in His
Passion, He associated her with Himself, her tears
and prayers and obedience with His own.
Many of His servants have been allowed to follow
Him in mysterious companionship through the scenes
of His sacred sufferings. What must have been the
fellowship vouchsafed to His Mother:' He said bv
His prophet: "There is not a man with Me." —
(Isaias G-3.) But His Mother was surely with Him;
if not actually present always, yet seeing and hear
ing all that befel Him with a reality reserved for her
self alone. She is ready to share her contemplation
and her sorrows. What heart so hard as not to desire
to share them with her !
Who would visit the scenes of the Passion alone
when he could go with Mary ! And what a difference
it makes in the fruit ! How much more deeply the
72 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
heart is moved, seeing as Mary sees, feeling as Mary
feels ! To gain insight into their depths, apprecia
tion of their lessons, love and gratitude to our Lord,
and sympathy with Him, we must keep close to her
throughout. We must turn continually from the Son
to the Mother. In her agonised face we shall see by
reflection what He suffers, better than by fixing our
gaze on Him alone. Even when she may not be
actually present, as at the Agony in the Garden or the
mock coronation in the guard-room, we cannot doubt
her to have a fuller knowledge of every detail than
has been granted to any other. When contemplating
any scene, therefore, we may kneel by her side, watch
with her eyes, feel through her heart, and come thus
" to know our Lord more clearly, to love Him more
dearly, and to follow Him more nearly."
Go to her in her lonely room, where on Thursday
night she is sharing the Agony of her Son in the Gar
den and drinking His bitter chalice with Him. Look
into her face as she sees Him go to His disciples and
humbly ask for their companionship in the loneliness
that is upon Him : " Stay you here and watch with
Me." 0 Mother, how willingly wouldst thou stay by
His side and keep watch through those hours of awful
strife !
See how she trembles as her Son is roughly bound
to the pillar. How she notes each dread detail of the
preparations. How she shrinks horror-stricken at the
sight of the scourge. Look, if you can, into her face
as the first strokes fall.
See her anguish when His tormentors press the
MARY AND THE PASSION 7:*
thorny crown upon His brow. She marks the signs
of intolerable pain as they beat it down with the reed.
She would bear with joy any agony to bring Him a
moment's relief, and she knows that her pain, clearly
seen by Him, is an additional torture to His tender
filial Heart. See her tears at the spitting and the
mockery.
Ask to go with her on Friday morning as she fol
lows -John into the street. The shouts of the crowd
on the way to Calvary are his guide where to lead her.
Keep close : let not the dense throng separate you
from her: you will miss so much of nearness to the
Son if you are parted from the Mother. Here at this
corner she is to meet Him. Watch the meeting.
See the agony of both : their perfect resignation ; how
thcv accept what is harder to bear than personal
suffering — pain, and shame for that one who is dearer
to each than life. Admire these two hearts the most
utterly stricken, the meekest, the bravest earth has
ever seen.
" W(nnnu, lic/iolJ thy son." Our Lord had you in His
Heart as He hung upon the Cross. The agony of the
death throes could not distract Him from your need
of an advocate, a comforter, a mother. Faintly from
the dry lips came His legacy to you — all He had left
to give you, except the life which was ebbing fast:
" Son, behold thy Mother." What will you say to
Him for there remembering you:-" What will you
say to her for there accepting you ? How will you
thank God for all the graces that have been the fruit
of that commendation?
74 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
Mother, dear, all thou canst share with thy children
thou art ready to share ! Share, then, with me thy
pain in the Passion of thy Son. Thou must not keep
all for thyself. I have more right to it than thou
hast. It was no sin of thine which tore that Flesh,
crowned that Head, broke that Heart. " Christ Jesus
came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am
the chief."— (I. Tim. 1.) "He loved me and
delivered Himself for me."— (Galat. 2.)
He redeemed thee, indeed, but with a choice re
demption that is for thee alone. His Blood did not
ransom thee out of bondage, but kept thee free ; did
not wash thee from guilt, but made thee immaculate.
Therefore, whilst thou didst cost Him much thou wert
a joy to Him always. Thy spirit rejoices in God thy
Saviour, yet not as ours. And in a higher way than
thy children thou dost weep over the sufferings of the
Man of Sorrows. Yet thou disdainest not the com
panionship of the least or the most guilty. With any
of us thou wilt share thy pain. Share it now with
me.
THE AGONY IN THE GAEDEN
I. — Behold thou hast taught many, and thou hast strengthened
the weary hands. . . . But now the scourge is come upon
thee and thou faintest : it hath touched thee and thou art
troubled.— Job. iv.
Then Jesus came with them to a country place,
^hirh is called Gethsemane ; and He said to His dis
ciples : *' Sit you here till I pro yonder and pray."
And lie taketh Peter and James and John with Him,
and He began, lo fear and to be heavy. And He sailh
to them: "My Soul is sorrowful even unto death;
stay you here and watch with Me."
And He was withdrawn from them a stone's cast;
and kneeling down He prayed. And He fell upon
His face, and He prayed that if it might be, the hour
miirhi pass from Him. And He said: " Abba, Father,
all things are possible to Thee ; remove this chalice
from Me ; but not what I will, but what Thou wilt."
And He cometh to His disciples and findeth them
asleep. And He said to Peter : " What ! couldst thou
noi watch one hour with Me? Watch ye and pray
ihai ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed
is willing, hut the ilesh is weak."
Again the second time He went and prayed, saying:
" Mv Father, if this chalice may not pass away but I
76 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
must drink it, Thy will be done." And He cometh
again and findeth them asleep, for their eyes were
heavy. And leaving them He went away again, and
He prayed the third time, saying the same words.
And there appeared to Him an Angel from heaven
strengthening Him. And, being in an agony, He
prayed the longer. And his sweat became as drops of
blood trickling down upon the ground. — (Matth. 26,
Mark 14, Luke 22.)
A garden on the western slope of Olivet,
close to the brook Kedron that flows through
the valley of Jehoshaphat. Olive trees all about.
The moon at the full, but the darkness beneath the
trees impenetrable. To the north of the garden a
grotto fourteen yards by eight or nine. Our Lord
prostrate there as in an underground torture cham
ber. Eight of the Apostles near the garden gate.
Peter, James, and John a stone's throw from the
scene of the Agony.
According to an ancient tradition, our Lord's
first prayer was made under the trees : He withdrew
afterwards into the grotto.
II.— The sorrows of death encompassed Me, and the torrents
of iniquity troubled Me. — Ps. xvii.
Ponder the words of the Evangelist describing our
Lord's state of soul in the Garden : " fear," " heavi
ness," " agony," " sorrow unto death."
Christ our Lord was not wont to make much of what
THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN 77
He did or suffered. He speaks of His Passion as if
it were something almost ordinary in the way of pain :
" The Son of man shall be delivered to the Gentiles,
and shall be mocked and scourged and spit upon and
put to death." — (Luke 18.) Hence we must under
stand Him literally when He speaks of Himself as
" sorrowful even unto death." He was enduring the
pangs which come upon the soul at the last; when it
is being torn from its lifelong companion, the body ;
when the beads of perspiration stand out thick on
the brow of the strong man.
This death-sweat is the evidence of interior torture,
and in particular of that awful form of torture — fear.
We hear of criminals, on the eve of their execution,
suffering in this way. But once or twice only has
history recorded that the drops on the brow were
blood, the body witnessing thus to the terror that filled
the mind. What must have been the anguish of our
Lord that night, when from every pore there issued
drops of blood, a sweat so copious that after soaking
His garments it trickled down upon the ground !
He was given up to u horror and dismay which
God in His mercy has spared the vilest sinner. If
we would realise it in some faint degree, we must con
sider what it was to which He offered Himself when
He undertook to satisfy for our sins. He was " made
sin for us," in the forcible language of the Apostle.
(2 Cor. 5.) The guilt of our sins He could not lake,
but He took the result of that guilt. He, the All-
Holy, drew to Himself all that is loathsome in human
sin. He allowed himself to be clad in the foul o-ar.
78 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
ment from the contact of wliicli He shrank inexpress
ibly, and bore the shame of appearing thus before His
spotless Court in heaven.
We, on whom sin weighs so lightly, cannot under
stand what its touch was to Him. But we know that
the sensitiveness of the spirit exceeds by far that of
the dull flesh. That there is a shrinking from moral
defilement, from ingratitude, from shame, more in
stinctive than any recoil of the senses. But not the
most keenly sensitive of us can form any idea of the
extent to which pain of body and mind told on the
delicate organisation of the Sacred Humanity, framed
with a view to its awful office of universal Yictim,
and supported by Omnipotence to bear the whole
weight of the wrath of God, and to satisfy to the full
the requirements of His justice.
True, He was offered because it was His own will
(Isaias 53). He reminds us again and again that
the offering He made in the first moment of His
Incarnation was never retracted : " I do not resist : I
have not gone back. I have given my body to the
strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked them :
I have not turned away my face from them that re
buked me and spat upon me " (Isaias 50). He was
so afraid we should see in the petition His anguish
wrung from Him a reluctance to suffer for us, that
it is almost by stealth we come to know of it. He
withdrew even from His three privileged Apostles into
the deepest and darkest recesses of the olive grove,
into the concealment of the grotto, as if to hide from
men the cry of His breaking Heart, which the Father
alone would not misconstrue.
THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN 79
Oh yes, Tie suffered willingly. The very trembling
of His spirit and of .II is flesh bore witness to II is
devotedness. Only Ihe most intrepid love could have
laid itself open to the torture of such fear. Only the
absolute determination of His Will could have trusted
itself to the violence of such an onslaught.
He suffered willingly. lie knelt down to offer
Himself for the sins of men, and in an instant the
deluge was upon Ilini. Like a low-lying city whose
dykes have given way, His Soul was flooded with the
accumulated wickedness of the world. Jt seemed to
identify itself with Him, to be all but His own : " the
torrents of iniquity troubled Me " (Ps. 17). Yet
there was no vagueness. Each sin stood out clear and
distinct, my sin at such an hour, all the sins of my
life. And all to be set down to His account, all to be
punished in Him as if He were the sinner. O mv
Lord, what sounding can fathom the depth of Thv
humiliation : " Glorious in holiness " (Exod. 15)
to be " made sin " for ine !
He saw the punishment of the sin He had taken
on Himself, and He trembled. He who knows clearly
the malice of sin, how should He not tremble at the
sight of the expiation due for the sins of the world !
The scourge, the nails, the cross, betrayal, mockery,
desertion by God and man — all the torture that begin
ning now was to accumulate and intensify without
a moment's respite for soul or body till the last sol) on
('ill vary, was present before Him, vivid and detailed.
Well might His Heart quail. For He was true man
as one of us. " T also have a heart as well as vou "
80 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
(Job 12). Helpless and unprotected, He lay upon. His
face, rehearsing all that was to come upon Him, realis
ing, as His Divinity enabled Him to realise, what it
was to have been accepted as the Victim for the world's
sin. God sustains His martyrs under their torments.
Long before the moment when these reach the insup
portable, His Providence interferes. Death or un
consciousness comes to the rescue of the fainting flesh.
As our English martyrs stepped week after week into
the torture chamber, and beheld the preparations,
rendered more terrible by familiarity, their trust was
in the fidelity of God. They knew in whom they had
believed, and they were certain that He would keep
that which they had committed to Him — the frail,
shrinking flesh, the trembling will. And God never
failed His servants. Not one was tried beyond his
strength. But there was no such mercy for the Son.
He must be stricken to extremity, beyond the point
where human nature taxed to its utmost can endure.
His Divinity will support Him, not for the alleviation,
but for the protraction of His pain. Over the agony of
death He is to pass — and live on. 0 sacred suffering
Soul, what was my share in Thy intolerable
anguish : what has been my return of love to Thee
for bearing so much for me !
Pain is sweetened by the thought that it will profit
those whom we love. Our Lord saw that for a multi
tude of souls what He was going to suffer would avai]
nothing; that they would be lost in spite of all He
could do to save them. And of those whom His pains
would profit, how many were a drop in His bitter
THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN 81
chalice I They would be saved indeed, but how
poorly. They would uol be obdurate, buf they would
be niggardly. His self-sacrifice and unstinted
generosity would awaken in their souls only the very
faintest response. Whilst His constant thought in
life and in death had been what more He could do for
them, their study would be how little they could do
for Him compatible with their own salvation.
There was a last drop in that chalice, one that sur
passed in bitterness all that had gone before. If
Jerusalem had deserted Him — His own people, His
priests : if one apostle was about to betray Him, and
all to forsake Him ; He had still the Father left Him,
the Father's love to make amends for all, the Father's
bosom into which to climb. Who could assail Him
there ? Who should drive Him thence ? Oh mystery
the more impenetrable the more we search into it —
that when He was making to the Divine Majesty an
infinite satisfaction, acceptable and accepted, the
Father should forsake — it is His own word — treat as
a sinner the Son of His love ! Because He was made
sin for us, because we had deserved to be abandoned
by God, Christ was abandoned, a word we should have
never dared to use had He not used it first to reveal
to us the darkness that gathered round His human
Soul, and caused Him anguish bevond which there
was nothing left for Him to bear.
This is what we mean by the Agonv in the Garden
— the throes that must have wrenched asunder soul
and body had lie not reserved Himself for the
death of the Cross. Our agony, O Lord, is but the
G
32 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
faintest shadow of Thine. With us it is the fore
runner of death close at hand. Thine brought Thee
to the gates of death, and held Thee there till the
three hours on Calvary were run.
What drop was mine, my Saviour, in
Thy cup of woe,
Bringing its brimming bitterness
To overflow :
What sin of mine oppressed Thy soul
With anguish sore
Driving a death-sweat . . . and of blood,
From every pore?
III. — Thou also art wounded as well as we, Thou art
becorfte like unto us. — Isaias xiv.
The sacred Agony reveals a depth of sympathy and
brotherly compassion which we should have thought
impossible in a God-man. Had we been asked how
our Lord would go forth to meet His torments, we
should have said : " With the fearlessness He had
ever shown in life when danger threatened, with a
dauntless, unruffled soul rejoicing like a giant to run
the way, desiring with desire to drain to the dregs the
bitter chalice He had resolved to drink for love of us."
We should have sent Him into the battle like an
earthly captain, animating His followers by His
high courage and heroic words. Could we have
dreamed of a Leader who, to comfort His terror-
stricken soldiers would share their weakness, would be
afraid ; whose face should blanch, whose voice should
tremble as the hour of trial drew on ? Could we have
THE AGONY IN THE CARDFA 8:5
brought ourselves to believe Unit our God would stoop
for our sakes to this excess of pitying love ? We
should have deemed it unworthy of Him. Oh happy
was it for us that lie had not to take1 counsel of us !
Where should we have gone in our hours of weakness
had there been no Gethsemane ! "What consolation
is want ing to us now that we see the mighty God
stricken with fear; sickening like us at the sight of
failure, treachery, ingratitude; cowering before the
anger of God; " with a strong cry and tears ottering
up prayers and supplications to Him that was able to
save Him from death " (lleb. 5).
How practical, how self-forgetting is Christ's love
for us ! lt All that I can do 1 will do for them " was
His motto through life. And thus when His hour
came, it was not what best befitted His Majesty, but
what would help us most that determined the way in
which He would meet suffering and death. To be
like His brethren in all things, this was His rule from
first to last: that, having shown Himself like us, He
may win us to be like Him, ready to say with Him
in the hour of trial: "Abba, Father, all things are
possible to Thee, let this chalice pass from me. Never
theless if this chalice may not pass away but I must
drink it, Thy Will be done."
IV.— My heart is ready. ^Ps. Ivi.
His hour was come — the hour to which Tie ottered
Himself when as a Babe He was presented to His
Father in the Temple. The hour of physical torments
and of a shameful death, the hour of humiliation and
84 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
blasphemy, of triumph, for His enemies, of agony for
His Mother and His friends — that hour had come.
And His hour found Him ready. In the agony of
the strife between the flesh and the spirit He sweated
blood, for He was truly man. But in spite of repug
nance, and darkness, and desolation, He was ready.
He stretched out His hands for His chalice : " I do
not resist; I have not gone back " (Isaias 50). " My
heart is ready, 0 God, My heart is ready " (Ps. 56).
We oifer ourselves to Him in a moment of fervour.
" Can you drink the chalice I shall drink ? " " We
can." And when the hour comes to prove our fidelity,
to watch and pray and suffer with Him, we are found
asleep.
" And they knew not what to answer Him." No
indeed, what answer could we make ? One only,
His own excuse for us : " the spirit is willing but the
flesh is weak.''
"Strengthen me, 0 God, in this hour" (Judith 13),
is a prayer that should be again and again on our
lips in face of a coming trial. Or, better still, our
Master's own words : " If this chalice may not pass
away but I must drink it, Thy Will be done."
"Can you drink of the chalice I shall drink?"
He says to us at times. " Would you like to be very
near Me in Heaven, to be among My dearest
and most intimate friends for ever and ever? Can
you drink of my chalice, then? There is no other
way. You may creep into a corner of Heaven if you
will. But to go up to its first places there must
be close companionship with Me here. Can you
find it in your heart to say : ' Give me to drink.' '
THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN 85
Lord, I would be near Thee at any cost, Bid mo
come to Thee, bid me come close to Thee. With
Thy help I will drink of Thy chalice. Thy lips
have well nigh drained it, A few drops only Thou
hast saved for me, to give me a title to that nearness
to Thee that I covet. I will take it from Thy hand :
Give me to drink.
V. — Like to us in all things. — Heb. iv.
We may think of our Lord as halting between
two ways; in a hesitation born of love, as
to which of two courses would be most advan
tageous to us. He had resolved to carry our
sorrows, arid therefore to know by His own experi
ence the anguish of dejection and fear. But would
it be safe to let us see Him in His abasement?
Would it scandalize us and shake our faith? That
imploring cry : " Father, let this chalice pass from
Me," would it make us doubt for an instant His
readiness to die for us ?
On the other hand, the complete unveiling to us
of His human Heart in its weakness and distress,
its craving for sympathy, its turning in the hour
of trial to those it loved — this would uphold us in
our day of sorrow. What would be best for us?
What would help us most? Xot a thought for
Himself or of His own humiliation; absolutely self-
forgetting: having loved His own who were in the
world, He loved them to the end.
He \\uuld risk, then, the trial to their taith. They
86 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
must liave the comfort and encouragement of His
companionship in hours of weariness and gloom;
they must see Him quailing before the Cross ; pray
ing to be spared ; creeping to His friends for sym
pathy and for the protection of their presence in His
loneliness and terror. They must see Him turning
from the Angel who had never suffered to the
human hearts that were like His own. It would
involve humiliation such as He had not stooped to as
yet. What of that? The law of the Incarnation
before all else — like to us in all things excepting sin.
And so He " humbled Himself to us " as the
Church says (Collect for Palm Sunday). Is she,
too, fearful lest from His prayer in the Garden we
should doubt His readiness to suffer and die for
us ? Any way, she ends every hour of her office
in Holy Week with that most touching prayer :
" Look down we beseech Thee, 0 Lord, upon this
Thy family, for which our Lord Jesus Christ hesi
tated not to be betrayed into the hands of sinners
and to suffer the torment of the Cross."
"Hesitated not;" never entered into a moment's
deliberation about; took it as a matter of course —
and this for me !
LESSONS OF THE SACRED AGONY.
i.
Three days before the Thursday when He was to be
sorrowful even unto death, a foretaste of His mid
night agony was given Him. It was Palm Sunday.
THE AGONY IN THE GAEDEN 87
The triumphal procession was over. The Ilosannas
had ceased, lie was healing in the Temple when
Peter and Audrey came to tell Him certain
Gentiles had come to them with the petition:
'' We would see Jesus."
How was it that the mention of the Gentiles sug
gested the Passion y In anguish of spirit, lie cried
out : "Now is My soul troubled. And what shall I
say? Father, save Me from this hour. But for this
cause I came unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy
name." Here in the Temple Courts as presently in
Gethsemane He lets us see the strife — to speak o in
human, language — between the human Will that
shrank like ours from torture and disgrace, and the
Divine Will that overruled the human and brought
in into conformity with Itself.
4' Now is J/v s<ml troubled" foreseeing the depths
of anguish into which it must descend; beholding
torments, betrayal, desertion, dereliction, death.
lk What shall I say ! ': —to Him to whom all things
are possible, who can deliver Me from all the evil
that threatens Me?
"Father, nare Me ! " — the cry of a child. Save
Me for the love Thou bearest Me, for the trust i
place in Thee.
^ From this hour" — foreseen so long, accepted
BO fully, yet now that it is at hand beheld with such
unspeakable dread.
Here is the voice of the Son of Man, of Him who
is like us in all things excepting sin. Here is the
human Will swaying in the tempest, yet clinging
ever io the Divine.
88 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
" Put for this cause I came unto this hour " — that I
iniglit hallow Thy Name, and by My submission
prove Myself Thy Son.
" Father, glorify Thy Name " — even at My cost,
even in the sacrifice of all that as man is dear and
precious to Me. In My abasement, in My shame,
in the triumph of My enemies, in the desolation of
My friends, in the extremity of My pains, in the
hiding of Thy face, 0 My Father, a darkness worse
than death ; by every drop of My blood, by every
throb of agony ; as in each moment of My life, so in
the bitterness of death, Father, glorify Thy Name !
This is our Elder Brother, He who said to us on
the eve of His Passion : " I have given you an
example that as I have done so you do also." How
much of His oblation can we make our own ? How
deep can we drink of His chalice ? He will not ask
us to do more than taste what He drained to the
dregs. He has proved that He loves us dearly. He
has shown us we may trust Him. Shall we not
abandon ourselves to Him, and let Him who knows
us through and through do with us what He wills !
II.
The chalice which my Father hath given Me shall I not
drink it.— John xviii.
It is always my Father's wisdom and love that pre
pares my chalice, as the physician mingles the
draught for his little sick child.
It is always my Father's hand that holds the
THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN 89
chalice to my lips. Not this person or that forces it
on me, though in the gloom it seems to be so: always,
always, it is the chalice that my Father hath given
1110.
It is always my Father's voice that I hear inviting
and encouraging me: " Can you drink of the chalice
of which 1 have drunk ? '' " Take all that shall be
brought upon thee, and in thy sorrow endure, and in
thy humiliation keep patience" (Ecclus. 2).
What 1 do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt
know hereafter" (John Ki). Seek not the things
that are too high for thee, and search not into things
above thy ability . . . for it is not necessary for
thee to sec with thy eyes those things that are hid
(Ecclus. 3). " Blessed are they that have not seen
and have believed " (John 20).
I will be one of these blessed ones. I will take
the chalice from my Father's hand. I will trust in
His wisdom and love that have prepared it for me.
1 will listen to His tender words as lie ^ives me to
drink. And in my heart and on my lips shall be
those of His well-beloved Son: "Yea, Father, for so
hath it seemed good in Thy sight " (Matth. 11)'. "Not
my will but Thine be done " (Luke 22). It shall not
be a reproach to me: " They grieved the Holy One,
they remembered not His hand. They loved Him
with their mouth, but their heart was not right with
Him, nor were they counted faithful " (Ps. 77). But
" I will take the chalice of salvation and call upon the
name of the Lord " (Ps. 115), " and humbly wait for
Ilis consolation " (Judith 8).
90 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
in.
(1) Believe God and He will recover thee (Ecclus.
2).
(2) Wait on God with patience, join thyself to
God and endure (Id.).
(3) Take all that shall be brought upon thee ; and
in thy sorrow endure, and in thy humiliation keep
patience (Id.).
(4) For He woundeth and cureth ; He striketh and
His hands shall heal ; refuse not therefore the chastis
ing of the Lord (Job 5).
(5) It is the Lord, let Him do what is good in His
sight (I. Kings 3).
If it be not He, who is it, then? (Job 9V
(G) Shall not my soul be subject to God? (Ps. 61).
I will bear the wrath of the Lord because I have
sinned against Him (Micheas 7).
(7) I am ready, let Him do what is good before
Him (II. Kings 15).
(8) Do with me, 0 Lord, according to Thy Will
(Tobias 3).
(9) Do all that seemeth good in Thy eyes (I. Kings
14).
(10) Teach me to do Thy Will, for Thou art my God
(Ps. 142).
THE SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR
I.- From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head there
is no soundness therein : wounds and bruises and swelling
sores. Isaias i.
" Then Pilate1 took .Jesus and scourged Him " (John
19).
This is all the Scripture tolls us of a torture uni
versally admitted to have been worse than death.
See in front of Pilate's hall a large courtyard paved
with reddish stones. On its northern side a pillar,
two feet and a half in height. Beside the pillar, a
slop on which the executioner stands to be able to deal
his blows with greater force. On the top of the pillar,
an iron ring to which our Lord is fastened by His
wrists. Note the painfulnoss of His poshire, His
body bent, His head bowed down. Look at the
ncourge, a four-thonged leathern lash, spiked with
iron. Each stroke will raise the flesh in bloody fur
rows, mangling, or cutting it to the bone.
II. — He is our brother and our flesh. — Gen. xxxvii.
The Scourging is one of those mysteries of humilia
tion, which, were it nut a fact, would be bevond the
92 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
reach of the most daring imagination to conceive.
Being a fact, how does it affect us ?
We come to it again and again in our beads ; we
give it a thought, perhaps, and pass on, and it has left
no impression. How strange this apathy seems ! Is
there anything to account for it, or to extenuate it?
We may hope that He who is ever ready to find
excuse for us, will set it down, not wholly to callous
ness, but to the deadening influence of familiarity,
and to the difficulty we have in bringing home to
ourselves that He who suffered was God. We believe
it, but there is little realisation and less response.
Another reason for our insensibility may be that in
this as in other mysteries of the Passion, we observe
indolently, we grudge the labour of examining de
tails. In any case, there is abundant matter for
humiliation. We cannot see an animal ill-used with
out firing up with indignation. Yet we can look un
moved upon the noblest of our race, the Man-God,
suffering torture such as this.
Were it a criminal at the pillar, one who had done
us the foulest injury, one who had sought our life, we
should be melted into tears of pity at the first stroke
of that awful scourge. And it is the Innocent One,
who did no sin, our Friend, our Brother, who is
pouring out His Blood for us ; it is our God, who has
assumed our nature to give to His sufferings in that
nature an infinite value, whereby to pay the all but
infinite debts we have contracted towards Him. It
is God who is thus tortured; God who is subjected to
this indignity ; God who is silent, patient, counting
it all joy to suffer thus for me!
THE SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR 93
0 God, my Saviour, who for my sake hast borne
such agony, such shame, draw my heart to Thee in
this most piteous most touching mystery, (live me
a true interior sorrow for my sins, especially for any
pampering of my body which has brought Thee to
this. Draw me to gratitude and to love, to at least
a little appreciation of what Thou didst suffer for me
at the pillar. Have patience with the present dulness
and coldness of my heart ; with the poor return which
is all it can now make Thee for Thy love : one day I
will pay Thee all.
III. — The Lord was angry with Me on your account. — Deut. I
One of the things as to which it behoves us to form
a true judgment is surely sin. Yet how hard it is to
realise its malice ! We know too little of what God
is to form any adequate idea of what it is to offend
Him. Thus we go through life with a false or very
imperfect conception of our relations with Him, and
are puzzled about many things of which sin is the
only true explanation. If only there were a school
in which we could sit down and learn and have
brought homo to us this terrible evil which we call
sin!
Here at the pillar is Christ's school. Here, if any
where, we may find what we are seeking. Here is an
object lesson which may well impress the dullest of
us.
" I have given my body to the strikers " (Isaias
50). " I am become as a vessel >hat is destroyed "
94 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
(Ps. 30). " The Lord chastising hath chastised me "
(Ps. 117).
Why ? " Why hath the Lord cast down to the
earth the glorious one of Israel? " (Lament. 2).
" He was wounded for our iniquities ; He was
bruised for our sins; the chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and by His bruises we are healed "
(Isaias 53).
It is by pondering its awful havoc on the Person of
the Son of Grod that we come to realise something of
the nature of sin. But we must ponder: a hasty
^glance is of no avail. We must go from wound to
wound, from the sole of the foot to the top of the head,
and see how there is no soundness in Him, wounds
and bruises and swelling sores. " The
whole head is sick and the whole heart is sad "
(Isaias 1), " because the Lord hath laid on Him
the iniquity of us all " (Isaias 53).
My God, give light to my mind that I may see in
this mystery what Thy saints have seen, and come to
understand and take to heart the lesson given me here
at such a cost !
IV.— If in the green wood they do these things, what shall
be done in the dry ? — Luke xxiii.
An hour hence, our Lord on His way to Calvary
will be saying these words to the daughters of Jerusa
lem. As fitly may He say them to us from the pillar
of His scourging. If, in Him " who did no sin " (I.
Peter 2), who bore its appearance only, sin is so fear
fully chastised, what must we expect who are sinners !
Till: SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR 95
"Lord, dost Thou speak this parable to us or like
wise t^ all," asked IVter, siniplv, as he sat at his Mas
ter's feet on the Mount of Olives, musing on the
warning: "Be you also ready, for at what hour von
think not the Sou of man will come " (Luke 12). Our
Lord made answer : " That servant who knew the will
of his lord and did not according to his will shall be
beaten with many stripes. . . . I'nless you do
penance you shall all likewise perish " (Luke !•'>).
"All." Therefore I. Am I ready to meet my
Lord ? Must 1 not do penance, the penance of neces
sity, the penance of prudence, the penance of love ^
The penance of necessity — repenting of my past sins
and confessing them, and shunning all sin and the
dangerous occasions of sin? The penance of prudence,
not leaving for the fearful expiation of the next life
the whole debt of temporal punishment my sins have
entailed, but accepting in the spirit of penance the
troubles that come to me in the course of God's Provi
dence, and even imposing on myself small privations
which, because free, are of great account with God,
and go far to satisfy His Justice. The penance of
love. " Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example
that we should follow His steps" (I. Peter 2). He
has not dispensed us from suffering because He has
suffered so much. And love for Him will not let us
dispense ourselves. St. Paul bids us " fill up those
things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ"
(Coloss. 1), the little measure He has left to our love
to supply. "Always bearing about in our body the
mortitication of Jesus" (11. Cor. 4). It is an instinct
96 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
of love to desire to suffer with the beloved. Hence,
great love, great mortification ; little love, little
mortification ; no love, no mortification.
V.— I have given my body to the strikers.— I saias 1.
(1) I see standing at the pillar the most delicately
fashioned, the most acutely sensitive of the children
of men.
(2) I see Him awaiting the first stroke in an agony
of fear, knowing the precise torment each will inflict,
up to the point which marks the limit of human en
durance, and beyond that limit where His Divinity
is to sustain Him for the protraction of His pain.
(3) I see His shrinking shame, more intolerable
than any physical torture.
(4) I note how He looks around for a friendly face,
a sign of recognition, pity, sympathy. And in vain :
" I looked for one that would grieve together with me,
and there was none " (Ps. 68).
(5) I see, as the first strokes fall, the flesh quiver,
the head fall on the breast, the breath come quick and
short. The anguish is unendurable. But He thinks
of me and nerves Himself to suffer still more.
(6) I mark the deep wounds as the scourging pro
ceeds ; so deep that in many places the bones are laid
bare. Towards the end of the hour the sacred body
is but one sore.
(7) The cords are cut and He falls to the ground. I
see Him summoning up the little strength left Him,
to seek His garments thrown here and there. No one
THE SCOUEGING AT THE PILLAR 97
1o do Him even this service. No one to pity Him.
His arms are so weak that Tie can scarcely lift the
seamless robe over His head. It adheres to the raw
flesh on every side, and at every movement causes
Him unspeakable torture.
0 God, my Saviour, what must my soul be worth to
have been bought at such a price ! For I know the
meaning of this awful scene. It is to expiate my
sensuality that Thou art so shamefully used. It is
to win me to sorrow for my sins by showing me the
punishment they have deserved. What ought I to
do after this? Can I see Thee making such repara
tion for me and not desire to make some satisfaction
myself ? If I cannot look out for occasions, shall I
not at least bear bodily sulTering with patience and
unite my pain with Thine '?
By His bruises we are healed.— Isaias liii.
0 wounds that such a healing need !
0 healing that a God must bleed
And agonise to win !
0 ye whose peace His stripes shall earn,
Round the red pillar throng, to learn
The awful ness of sin !
VI.— I am become as a man without help.- Ps. Ixxxvii.
(1)1 looked for one that would grieve together with
me, but there was none : and for one that would com
fort me, and I found none (Ps. (j8).
H
98 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
(2) There is no one that hath regard to my soul (Ps.
141).
(3) Friend and neighbour thou hast put far from
me, and my acquaintance, because of misery (Ps. 87).
(4) My familiar friends are departed from me (Job
6).
(5) I looked on my right hand and beheld, and there
was 110 one that would know me (Ps. 141).
They that knew me have forgotten me . . .
and he whom I loved most is turned against me (Job
19).
(0) Go your way, my children, go your way, for I
am left alone (Baruch 4).
(7) I am forgotten as one dead from the heart (Ps.
30).
(8) 0 all ye that pass by the way, attend and see if
there bo any sorrow like to my sorrow (Lament. 1).
(9) Have pity on me, have pity on me, at least you
my friends, for the hand of the Lord hath touched
me (Job 19).
(10) Attend to my supplication, for I am brought
very low (Ps. 141).
THE CROWNING WITH THORNS
i.- I looked for one that would grieve together with me, but
lucre was none : and for one that would comfort me, and
I fouuv .ione.— Ps. Ixviii.
Then the soldiers of the governor, taking Jesus
into the hall, gather., 1 together unlo Him the whole
band, and, stripping Him, they clothe Him with
purple. And platting a crown of thorns, they put
it upon His head, and a reed in His n>ht hand.
And bowing- the knee before Him, they began to
salute Him, (and) they mocked Him, saying- : "Hail !
Kin"- of the Jews." And spitting upon Him, they
took the reed and struck His head (Matth. 27, Mark
15, John 19).
See the barrack-yard of the soldiers in the Prae-
torium. The whole band, about five hundred men,
gathered tog-ether for the sport. Our Lord seated on
a stone bench. An old scarlet cloak about His
shoulders. On His head a crown, i.e., a raised cap or
mitre, of thorns, covering the whole head and half of
the forehead, the long, sharp thorns protruding inside
and outside. In His hand a reed. Streams of blood
trickling down His lace and through His hair, tilling
His eves and beard.
100 HAIL! FULL OF GP.ACE
See the soldiers marching before Him, genuflecting
as they pass : every now and then a halt to offer Him
some fresh insult ; some spitting on Him, some strik
ing Him, all mocking Him.
Hear the shouts, the laughter, the uproar, the
blasphemy.
Hear the silence of Christ.
II.— They are not afraid to spit in my face.— Job xxx.
Pity our Lord as He goes from the pillar of the
Scourging to the scene of His next torment. Wonder
that human hearts could be so hard, that hatred could
be so relentless as not to be satisfied with the state to
which the Scourging has brought Him. See His tot
tering steps. He is exhausted with pain and loss of
blood. Every movement is torture. His woven tunic
is clinging to a body that is one wound. The soldiers
push Him before them to the barrack-yard, where
they are going to have some sport by dressing Him up
as a king, and doing Him mock homage.
See them roughly taking off His vesture ; not even
His Mother could have removed it without causing
Him exquisite torture. They seat Him on a low stone
bench, throw a red rag round His shoulders by way
of a royal mantle, and put a reed in His hand for a
sceptre. A crown alone is wanting. One of them has
seen a thick briar growing near the door. It would
serve the purpose. They cut a branch covered with
hard spikes, and, taking care not to hurt their hands,
twist it into a kind of helmet bristling with sharp
THE CROWNING WITH THORNS 101
points within and without. They put it on to His
Head and beat it down with the reed.
Mark His agony as the thorns are driven into the
eyes, into the temples, into the nerves. Sec the rush
of tears caused by the intolerable pain. The blood
trickles through His hair, disfigures His face, fills and
blinds His eyes.
Xow begins the mockery. They draw themselves
up in line and pass before Him, bowing the knee and
saluting Him : '' Hail ! king of the Jews." One takes
the reed from His hand and strikes His head. Others
pull His beard and buffet Him. He makes no resis
tance. There is no sign of indignation. Tie does not
turn away His face when they spit upon Him. When
they want the reed to strike His head, He gives it
them, and takes it into His trembling hand when they
return it to Him. He endures beyond the limit of
endurance, because supported by His Divinity, torture
that would have killed the strongest man. His
physical suffering is awful, but it is not the worst.
Think what He feels in that tender, sensitive Heart of
His!
" Spitting upon Him.'" This indignity was not
only foreseen by the prophet, but was one of the few
pains of the Passion foretold by Himself. " The Son
of man shall be betrayed and delivered to the Gentiles,
and shall be mocked, and scourged, and spit upon, and
put to death." Six only of His sufferings mentioned
out of so many, and among these the mockery and the
spitting! He was a king, and He felt as none but a
king1 could feel dishonour, treachery, betrayal. " For
102 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
this is God, our God unto eternity, and for ever and
ever " (Ps. 47). " The blessed and only mighty, the
King of kings and Lord of lords " (I. Tim. 6). How,
then, will He feel the outrage He endures at the hands
of a brutal soldiery !
His Angels surround Him in adoration and
astonishment. This is the treatment He receives
from the human family, which He has preferred to
them, which He has honoured so unspeakably by
making it His own ! How they marvel at the pre
dilections of God, and try to see what He sees in
this human race that is being redeemed in so won
drous a way, at such tremendous cost.
III.— In what place soever thou shalt be, lord my king, either
in death, or in life, there will thy servant be. — 2, Kings xv.
Which of us will have the courage to say this as
we kneel before our King crowned with thorns?
Who will desire to have it said of him : " Thou also
wast with Jesus of Nazareth in humiliation and dis
grace ? " Thousands of His saints have been thus
loyal. But we maintain that not having the grace
of the saints we are not called to imitate them in
this respect. So close a following of the King is to
be admired rather than imitated. Discretion is not
a virtue only, but a duty. We have our position to
uphold, and so far from permitting us to submit to
anything in the shape of dishonour, it requires us to
act on the maxim : " No one shall provoke me with
impunity."
TlIKCHOWiNING WITH TJIOUNS 103
SI ill, as 1 kneel before Christ crowned with I horns,
in v King, as well as the King- of all saints, my
Leader no less than theirs, a sense of disquiet comes
over me, a feeling of being out of harmony with
Him in His meekness and patience under injury,
lie may not want me to endure outrage, but He does
ask me to pass over a slight, to bear peacefully the,
annoyances of daily life, the failings or the incon-
siderateness of those around me. Can I dispense
myself from following Him at least thus far, and
still call myself His disciple!"
How can 1 .'.ret the fortitude to follow Him more
closely:' For it is fortitude that is wanting. It is
the feeble-minded who stand up hotly for their
rights, whom no one can provoke with impunity.
Where can I get the royal virtue of meekness, the
greatness and strength of soul to bear at least the
little rubs of life as I ought?
Let me look into the Heart of my King as He siis
there, the sport of the vilest rabble. What sustains
Him:' What makes Him sufier willingly in spite
of the repugnance of nature r The same recognition
of the Father's hand in all that befalls Him, to which
His words in the Garden testiiied: 'The chalice
that My Father hath given Me, shall I not, drink it ^ '
The faith that sees the Father's hand in every trial,
this it is that holds the secret of meekness. To it
alone belongs the strength of endurance, the peace-
fulness of trust. A faith such as this transforms the
aspect of life. It gives a charmed life that disaster
and the malice of men assail in vain.
104 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
We cannot doubt that every event in the life of
the Son of God came about by the express decree or
by the permission of God. The same is true of all
events in our own lives, those included in which the
human element is most apparent. If, instead of
ascribing my troubles to chance or to the ill-will of
others, I rise to the thought of God's designs in send
ing them, I shall find myself in a region of calm. I
shall have passed beyond the reach of the sting that
comes from the hand of man, but is not found in the
hand of my Father who is in heaven.
Pain, indeed, comes from that hand, but for a
little while only. It gives the trial that it may be
able to give the reward ; the crown of thorns to-day,
the crown of glory to-morrow. Meanwhile, pain is
sweetened by the thought that my companionship
with Him here and hereafter softened His sorrows
to my King the day He bore them in meekness and
in love for me.
Jesus therefore came forth bearing the crown of
thorns.— John xix.
Say, will that thorn-crowned Head
As members own
The delicately bred?
Shall it alone
Languish, and smart, and bleed ?
Or, rather, shall they miss
Not following its lead
Its everlasting bliss?
THE CROWNING WITH THORNS 105
IV. You are bought with a great price. — i Cor. i.
Soo our Lord sealed there, meek, brave, invincible
in His patience. On every side the thorns encircle
and [tierce II is head, wounding the temples, breaking
the nerves. This in expiation of our evil thoughts;
our pride, rebellion, contempt of authority, uncharit
able interpretations. This to teach us how to bear
headache, anxiety, worry.
See His face, denied with spittle, besmeared with
blood, swollen and bruised with blows — a fearful
sight to look upon. From their intolerable pain,
His half-closed eyes have all but lost the power of
sight. Dimly through tears and blood they discern
the long line of mockers, and the hand lifted to
snatch the reed and beat the crown still deeper into
the head. This in atonement for our vanity, our
curiosity, our love of display.
His parched, pallid lips, His shoulders seamed
with the lash, II is trembling limbs, TTis aching Heart,
all these are bearing the penalty our sinful flesh has
deserved. He loved me and delivered Himself for
me.
0 my King, can I resist this piteous sight! Can
I see unmoved what my sins have brought upon Thee !
Can I refuse Thee my gratitude and my love ! I was
not by the pillar of the Scourging nor in the bar
rack-yard. I could not tell Thee of my thankful
ness ut the time Thou didst sutfer for me. Hut how
frightful would be my ingratitude were I to show
myself ungrateful now ! Who shall pay my debt
106 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
if I neglect it ? My pity for Thee in Thy pains, my
sorrow for my cruel sins that caused them, is as
acceptable to Thee now as it would have been at the
hour when Thou wert enduring all this for me.
But if my gratitude is to be more than a name, I
must seek out and destroy the cause of Thy suffer
ings. I must look at the Model Thou hast set before
me, and reform myself by what I see there.
" Who when He was reviled did not revile " (I.
Peter 2).
Do I pray for grace to forgive what I cannot for-
get?
Do I practise self-control when I feel hurt?
Do I try to accept bitterness of speech with sweet
ness?
Do I make allowance for mistakes and misunder
standing, and strive to accommodate myself to those
of a different character from my own?
Am I too exacting?
Am I ready to make sacrifices for the sake of peace ?
Am I as quick to find excuse for others as for
myself ?
Am I royally merciful towards those I dislike, or
who dislike me ?
Do I make others impatient by contradiction
Do I check in myself the spirit of criticism ?
V.— The Lord hath cast down and hath not spared all that
was beautiful.- Lament, ii.
(1) God hath delivered me into the hands of the
wicked (Job 16).
THE CROWNING WITH THORNS 107
(2) My enemies have surrounded me: they have
set their eyes bowing down lo the earth (Ps. 1G).
(>l) They have opened their mouths upon me, and
reproaching me, they have struck me on the check
(Job Hi).
(4) 1 am made a derision to all my people (Lament.
3).
(5) They abhor me, and are not afraid to spit in my
face (Job 30).
((i) I am turned in my anguish whilst the thorn
is fastened (Ps. 31).
(7) 1 shall not lift up my head, being rilled with
affliction and misery (Job 10).
(8) My shame is before me: and the confusion of
mv face hath covered me (Ps. 4->).
(9) O my people, what have 1 done to thee, or in
what have I molested thee:' Answer thou me.
(Micheas 6).
VI.- Art thou a king, then? I am a king. For this was I
born, and for this came I into the world. John xviii.
(1) Come, let us adore and fall down and weep
before the Lord that made us, for He is the Lord our
God (Ps. D4).
('J) Bring to the Lord glory and honour ( Ps. 'JS).
(.'{) All the Gentiles shall adore in His sight ( P<.
21).
(4) All the kings of the earth shall adore Him, all
nations shall serve Him ( Ps. 71).
(5) All the nations Thou hast made shall come and
108 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
adore before Thee, 0 Lord, and they shall glorify
Thy name (Ps. 85).
(6) Let all the earth adore Thee and sing to Thee
(Ps. 65).
(7) Thou alone art the God of all the kingdoms of
the earth (Isaias 37).
(8) Thou art worthy, O Lord our God, to receive
glory, and honour, and power (Apoc. 4).
(9) To Jesus Christ our Lord be glory and magni
ficence, empire and power, before all ages, and now,
and for all ages of ages, Amen (Jude 1).
(10) For of Him, and by Him, and in Him are all
things : to Him be glory for ever. Amen (Eomans
ii).
THE CARRYING OF THE CROSS
I. -And bearing His own cross He went forth.— John xix.
And after they had mocked Him, they took of!
the purple from Him, and put His own garments on
Him, and they led Him out to crucify Him.
And bearing His own cross He went forth.
And there were also two other malefactors led with
Him to Le put to death.
And as they led Him away, they laid hold of one
Simon of Gyrene coming from the country, the father
of Alexander and of Kufus ; and they laid the cross
on him to carry after Jesus.
And there follow d Him a great multitude of people
and of women, who bewailed and lamented Him.
But Jesus turning to them said: "Daughters of
Jerusalem, weep not over Me, but weep for yourselves
and for your children . . . For if in the green
d they do these things what shall be done in the
wood
dry?
And they bring Him into the place called Golgotha,
which being interpreted, is the place of Calvary
(Matth. 27, Mark 15, Luke '23, John 19).
See the Praetorium of Pilate, and to the west, at
a distance of about three-quarters of a mile, Calvary.
110 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
The road descending from the Praetorium into the
Tyropean Valley, then climbing a steep ascent to
the Grate of Judgment. "The place of Calvary "
at a short distance outside the Gate.
See the streets through which the procession is
to pass — dark, narrow, dirty, roughly paved with
large stones, here and there crossed by arches.
See the multitudes come up for the Pasch lining
the whole length of the road. Eager sight-seers in
every doorway, on every roof.
Watch the procession coming from the Prso-
torium — the centurion on horseback taking the lead ;
a herald walking beside him ; the thieves, filled with
rage and despair ; our Lord tottering under His
heavy load, His right hand trying to steady the cross
on His shoulder, His left to gather His long robe
from under His feet. Around the prisoners, execu
tioners, soldiers, priests, Pharisees, a vast crowd in
sulting them, children throwing stones at them.
See the ladders, ropes, and nails.
Notice there, at a corner of the street, the Blessed
Mother with Magdalen and John
Hear the babel of sounds — the herald proclaiming
the sentence ; the tongues of every nation under
heaven; the yells, jeers, blasphemy of the crowds;
hear on every side the words : " impostor," " seducer,"
" blasphemer."
II. — I have given you an example that as I have done, so
you do also.— John xiii.
Our Lord accepts His cross at the time and in the
shape in which it is presented to Him.
THE CARRYING OF TITE CROSS 111
He does not examine it, l)iit embraces il.
He does not consider the cruelty of those who lav
it upon Him, but the love of the Father who has
chosen it for Him.
He does not complain of its weight, or seek to cast
it upon others, but summons up all His strength to
bear it.
lie accepts, not onlv ihe cross itself, but all the
painful circumstances iliat accompany it.
If lie is relieved of His burden lor a time, it is
not by IF is own act. lie is grateful for the relief,
but readily accepts the load when ii is laid on Him
anew.
His heavy cross docs not make Him unmindful of
the lesser sorrows of others, or unsympathising, or
ungracious. He will stop on His road to Calvary
to speak to the women of Jerusalem, to greet Ilis
Mother at least by a look, to reward Veronica, to
thank the Cyrenean.
He will not come down from His cross when defied
by His enemies, but only at the bidding of His
Father.
He will be taken down by the hands of others when
His work is tinished; the last pang endured; the
Will of Him who sent Him fully accomplished.
Does my way of bearing my cross show that I
have studied my Master on His way to Calvary?
III. -Come thou also with thy servants. He answered: I
will come. So he went with them.— 4 Kings vi.
The disciples of Kliseus with a toilsome journey
before them asked for their master's company a<
112 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
encouragement. Could the servants of God do the
like ? Had we stood by the smoking Mount of Sinai
and seen the lightnings and the flames, and heard
the thunders and " the noise of the trumpet exceed
ing loud," and the voice of the Lord speaking, should
we not have cried out with the children of Israel :
" Let not the Lord speak to us lest we die " ? Would
the boldest of us have dared to ask for the intimate
presence of that God of majesty in our midst? That
He should be a wayfarer like ourselves through the
desert, our Elder Brother, our Pioneer, going before
us to point out and smoothe the way?
The Incarnation has done for us what we could
not have asked or imagined. It has brought Him
down among us. The God of Sinai is toiling along
the dusty road. He is bent beneath His burden,
faint, footsore, weary. Why? Because His ser
vants, His brethren, are on that painful path. Where
we are He must be with us. The cry of our heart to
the God who made us was : " Come Thou also with
Thy servants." He answered : " I will come." So
He went with them.
IV. — In all things like as we are, without sin. — Heb. iv.
Is there anything so disheartening on the road to
heaven as the repeated falls that follow upon our
best resolutions ! We know they should not cast us
down as they do. They are not without their advan
tages. They teach us self-knowledge. They incite
us to humility and contrition. They serve as a
THE CARRYING OF THE CROSS 113
stimulus to greater fidelity and fervour in the future.
On the other hand, discouragement does more harm
than the fall itself. Its source and its fruits are dis
tinctly bad. It springs from pride, for if we knew
ourselves better we should be less surprised to find
ourselves so weak. It aggravates the evil done in
the past. It weakens us for the future. All this we
have been told a hundred times. We believe it, we
have experienced it, and — we remain discouraged.
Hast Thou any better comfort for us, dear Master,
anything that comes home to us more in those
moments of depression when we are too weary to
reason, too sad to seek a remedy ? Thou art wont to
come down to the level of our miseries, and lighten
them by taking them upon Thyself. Canst Thou do
this here ? AVas it for our encouragement that in
spite of Thine efforts to reach Calvary Thou didst
stumble and fall again and again? Fall as we fall,
Thou couldst not. But the contrivances of Thy love
bring Thee marvellously near to us. In Thy desire
to show Thyself our Brother, like to us in all things
excepting sin, Thou dost take appearances where
Thou mayst not take the reality. Thou dost suffer
the effects of guilt as Thou canst not incur its stain.
Thou art like us, 0 Son of Man, in our sorrows ; like
us, 0 Holy One, in the sadness that comes of sinful-
ness ; like us, 0 mighty God, in our fears!
0 dear Lord Jesus, how touching is Thy faltering
and failing on the uphill road ! How reassuring is
it for us, Thy weak brethren, to creep up to Thee
after our own falls, and see Thee lying prostrate,
I
114 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
spent, powerless. And — here is our example — whilst
still trembling with the shock and pain of Thy fall,
with all the weariness of failure upon Thee, with the
knowledge that at no great distance Thy strength will
give way anew — rising and struggling on, in no wise
shaken in Thy resolve to pursue Thy way, and to
prove by Thy very falls Thy unconquerable love of
us.
In many things I am too weak to follow Thee, dear
Lord. But on the toilsome path of daily duty my
very weakness makes me like Thee. I fall, oh how
many times ! My falls bring with them soreness,
dejection, the temptation to give up the struggle.
But this with the help of Thy grace I will never do.
I will remember Thou art at hand still, the same
yesterday, to-day, and for ever; indulgent, easily
appeased, ready to forgive. Thou dost deplore far
more than I do anything like estrangement between
us, and only waitest for me to turn to Thee with my
" Peccavi " to put all right again. The mother
whose little one has fallen and bruised itself, does
not beat or even blame it, but runs at its first cry and
kisses the sore place, and makes it well. Her in
stinct is God-given. But tenderer still is the love of
the Divine Heart Itself. " He will have compassion
on thee more than a mother " (Ecclus. 4). This shall
be my consolation, Lord. I will think more of Thy
jnercy than of Thy justice, of having disappointed
than of having displeased Thee. I will even count
on a kind of fellow-feeling with me in my falls, and
look to Thee who didst stumble and fall on the road
THE CAERYING OF THE CROSS 115
to Calvary, to pity mo and help me again on my wav.
After Thy example I will rise at once and trudge
on by Thy side as before, i rust ing- to Thy more abun
dant grace. By Thy weakness, 0 Lord, strong hen
me. 13 y Thy weariness refresh me. Jiy Thv per
severance uphold me to the end. Give me the trust
in Thee that holds on its way, undismaved by slips
and by bruises, iixed in its resolution to reach Thee
at last, Thou art watching, waiting, stretching- out
1 hy arms to me. Draw me into their embrace when
life is done, and reward throughout eternity by the
possession of Thyself a trust that has never failed.
In Thee, 0 Lord, have- 1 hoped, I shall never be
confounded (Ps. M).
V.— They laid the cross on him to carry after
Jesus. --Luke xxiii.
It was for Simon's sake much more than for TTis
own that our Lord shared 11 is cross with him. The
virtue that came from its contact with the Son of
God went out to him who was following- in His
footsteps. Quickly he learned his lesson. From
bearing the cross reluctantly, he came to bear it
patiently, willingly, joyfully, reaching- thus the
highest perfection of which love is capable on earth.
To carry after .'Jesus. With Him toiling on in
front, it was not hard to follow. He had taken I lie
galling weight from the cross when He bore it on
His shoulder.
They laid the rn^.v on him. True, but did Simon
stop at the instruments: AVhen, after years spent
116 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
in his Master's service, he looked back to the meet
ing on the road to Calvary, did he so much as think
of the hands that constrained him? Was not the
hand of God too plain? Was it not God who
planned that meeting, who chose him for the honour
of being the first to carry the cross after Jesus ?
Looking back on their lives from the bed of death
and from their place in heaven, the servants of God
see that what they could least spare out of their life
would be its crosses. It is the cross that has stamped
them all with the mark special to the elect. " For
whom He foreknew He also predestinated to be made
conformable to the image of His Son " (Horn. 8).
How wonderful are God's dealings with us ! How
continually He turns our days of trouble into times
of richest blessing ! The thieves led out of prison
on the first Good Friday to die with our Lord,
looked on that day as the most miserable in their
lives, whereas it was to bring them an offer of mercy
and happiness such as they had never had before.
A grace was preparing for them strong enough to set
right all that was wrong and bring them after a few
hours of sorrow into eternal joy.
Little did Simon of Gyrene suspect that Friday
morning as he went forth to his daily toil, that grace
was tying in wait for him on the road to Calvary ;
that hidden in the cross of pain and shame was laid
up for him the highest honour and never-ending joy !
We rise in the morning and make our plans for the
day. God has made His for us. Turning a corner,
we find the cross of Christ awaiting us, and with it the
THE CARRYING OF THE CROSS 117
grace that with a little effort on our part will enable
us to bear it bravely after our Master. How is it
that whilst we have plenty of congratulations for
Simon, we have nothing but compassion for our
selves !
Teach me, dear Lord, to bear my crosses with faith,
and hope, and love. With faith — to believe thev
come from Thy hand, to cry out when I see one in the
distance : " It is the Lord ! " With hope — because
if I follow Thee to Calvary now, I shall follow Thee
into Thy Kingdom by and by. "With love — that
will make me glad to bear something for Thee who
hast borne so much for me.
And bearing His own cross He went forth.— John xix.
Who but Himself might such a burden bear !
All weariness, all woe concentred there;
Framed for Christ's dauntless charity alone,
Uneased, unshared, in very truth — His own.
Weighed, Lord and Master, with Thy load of pain,
How light the servant's lot! yet I complain:
Up, coward heart ! shoulder thy cross and cry :
" Let us, too, go with Him to bleed and die."
VI.— In death they were not divided.— 2 Kings i.
Our Lord has taught us many a lesson in His jour-
neyings up and down the land of Judea during tin-
years of His Ministry. On His way to Calvary lie
118 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
must teach us at every turn, for His time is short.
His Blessed Mother, too, the first and most faithful
of His disciples, is to serve us for an example on the
Way of the Cross. They have a lesson for us at the
corner of this street where they are to meet,
Let us watch the meeting and see the kind of conso
lation they bring1 to one another in this hour of bitter
anguish for both. What fortitude ! What forgetful-
ness of self ! What control of the strongest, holiest
affection earth has ever seen by the ail-absorbing
thought of the Will of God ! Mary's heart beats in
perfect unison with the Heart of her Son. Like His,
it throws itself into the Divine Will for the redemp
tion of the world with a strength of purpose that over
masters the instincts of nature.
See them I Listen ! There is no shrinking in
their self-immolation, no lamentation at the sight of
the anguish of the one dearer to each than life. The
Son and the Mother meet, but it is as the Redeemer
and the Co-Redemptrix of the world. The Sacrifice
their sublime office demands occupies them entirely.
Their eyes meet. Dimly, through the tears and blood
that obscure His sight, our Lord discerns His Mother's
face, and His glance carries strength to her soul. He
summons her, His well-beloved, to ratify the oblation
made at Xazareth in the hour of the Incarnation,
wThen she consented to become the Mother of the Man
of Sorrows ; the oblation made solemnly in the
Temple on the day of His Presentation, and renewed
again and again as the time of the Passion drew near :
u Behold the handmaid of the Lord." At every stage
THE CARRYING OF TILE CROSS 119
of His Redemption she is His handmaid, waiting
upon Him always, His fellow-worker on whose sym
pathy and absolute fidelity He ran rely.
And now II is hour has come ; the hour of which He
had so often spoken to her at Nazareth; the hour
that was the subject of such earnest prayer put up to
gether as they knelt there side by side; the hour for
which lie had promised to strengthen her, that, first
in privilege as in dignity, she might drink deeper
than any other of His chalice. His glance recalls all
this to her now.
And it is met by a response such as that handmaid
alone could give. No cry of pain escapes her. To
bring Him the only comfort in her power — the
assurance that she accepts with Him every jot and
tittle of the Father's Will; that she does not grudge
one pang; that she is ready for more, for the consum
mation of the Sacrifice, for Calvary — this is her one
thought. She cannot speak her " Ecce ancilla."
Her heart would break with a word to Him. But her
eyes, her quivering lip, her clasped hands speak for
her. It is but for a moment that the Son and the
Mother meet, Yet in that moment are rehearsed the
thoughts and desires and resolves of the Three-and-
Thirty Years.
I turn to mvsell. What, kind of consolation do I
bring to my friends in the path of daily life that is
for so many the Way of the Cross? Is it a help to
them, a spiritual support to meet me ?
Do I try to take the sting out of wounds, or are
they the worse for my handling?
120 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
Do I by injudicious sympathy accentuate vexations
or misunderstandings ?
If I listen to angry words, is it with, the view of
relieving an overcharged heart, and of saying a
soothing and helpful word later?
Do I try to put a favourable construction on pain
ful words or acts, and abstain from repeating what
would work further mischief?
Do I ever speak to my friends of finding light,
strength, remedy — in prayer? " And Jonathan went
to David and strengthened his hands in God " (I.
Kings 23). Are my friends moved by my words to
bear up bravely, to trust in God, " and humbly wait
for His consolation"? (Judith 8).
In a word, have I studied the meeting of Jesus and
Mary on the road to Calvary and learned how true
friendship comports itself in the hour of trial?
VII. — Thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth. — Mark xiv.
Thou wert glad, dear Lord, to suffer for me. Not
that Thou couldst desire suffering for its own sake
for Thou wert truly man, and Thine exquisitely sen
sitive nature shrank as none other ever shrank
from pain. But Thou didst long to go through that
pain which was to purchase my happiness and to
prove Thy love to me. If Thou didst look forward
with eagerness to Thy Passion, it was for my sake.
So must it be with me. I cannot desire suffering
for itself. But with the grace which Thou wilt give
to me as to Thy saints I may come to love that which
THE CARRYING OF TIIK CROSS 121
will bring me nearer to Thee; will forward Thy de
signs for my sanctification and happiness ; will enable
me to glorifv Thee more; will be proof to Thee of
my gratitude and my love. AVe speak of the sign of
the Cross. I can love the Cross at least inasmuch as
it is a sign to heaven and earth, to angels and to men,
to Thee, my God, and to myself, that I am on Thy
side, that I belong to Thee, that I am marked here
with that seal which is to be the salvation of the elect
on the last tremendous Day: "Hurt not the earth,
nor the sea, nor the trees, till we sign the servants of
our God in their foreheads." 0 Lord, when Thou dost
send me the Cross here to give me a right to bear it
hereafter, let me not turn away rebellious or discon
solate. Let me not sorrow as those that have no hope,
bitterly because unwillingly. I shall be so glad, so
proud on the Last Day to bear the Cross on my fore
head, to hear the congratulations of the saints :
" Thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth." Why
should I not feel at least the beginnings of that glad-
VIII. — Christ suffered for us leaving you an example that
you should follow His steps, i Peter ii.
(1) W hither I go you know and the way you know
(John 14).
(2) If any man will come after Me, let him denv
himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me
(Luke 9).
(3) lie that taketh not up his cross and followeth
Me, is not worthy of Me (Matth. 10).
122 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
(4) The disciple is not above the master, nor the
servant above his lord (Id.).
(5) It is enough for the disciple that he be as his
master, and the servant as his lord (Id.).
(6) Come to Me all you that labour and are bur
dened, and I will refresh you (Matth. 11).
(7) Take up My yoke upon you and learn of Me
because I am meek and humble of heart, and you
shall find rest to your souls (Id.).
(8) Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou
shalt go (Matth. 8).
(9) Go whither thou wilt and I will be with thee (I.
Kings 14).
(10) In what place soever thou shalt be, lord my
king, either in death or in life, there will thy servant
be (II. Kings 15).
TIIK CRUCIFIXION
I. -Jesus Christ who hath loved us and washed us from our
sins in His own blood. Apoc. i.
And Ihoy bring Him into the place called Golgotha,
which being interpreted, is the place of Calvary.
And they gave Him to drink wine mingled with
myrrh. And when He had tasted He would not
drink.
And it was the third hour and they crucified Him.
And with Him they crucified the robbers,
one on the right hand and the other on the left, and
Jesus in the midst.
And Jesus said: "Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do."
And the people stood beholding. And they that
passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and
saying: "Yah! Thou that destroyest the Temple of
God, and in three days dost rebuild it, save Thy own
self. It Thou be the Son of God, come down from
the cross." . . .
And one of those robbers who were hanged,
blasphemed Him, saying: "If Thou be Christ, save
Thyself and us." lUit the other answering, rebuked
him, saying: "Neither dost thou fear God, seeing
thou art under the same condemnation? And we
124 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our
deeds, but this Man hath done no evil/' And he said
to Jesus : " Lord, remember me when Thou shalt
come into Thy Kingdom." And Jesus said to him :
" Amen, I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with
Me in Paradise."
Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, His Mother,
and His Mother's sister, Mary of Cleophas, and
Mary Magdalen. When Jesus, therefore, had seen
His Mother, and the disciple standing whom He
loved, He saith to His Mother: u Woman, behold
thy son." After that He saith to the disciple: " Be
hold thy Mother." And from that hour the disciple
took her to his own.
And it was almost the sixth hour. And when the
sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the
whole earth until the ninth hour.
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud
voice, saying: " El^, Eloi, lamma sabacthani ! "
Which is, being interpreted : " My God ! My God !
why hast Thou forsaken me ?
Afterwards Jesus, knowing that all things were
now accomplished, that the Scripture might be ful
filled, said : " I thirst." I^ow there was a vessel
set there full of vinegar ; and immediately one of
them running-, took a sponge and filled it with
vinegar, and putting it upon a reed, put it to His
mouth, and gave Him to drink.
Jesus, therefore, when He had taken the vinegar,
said : " It is consummated."
And Jesus again ciying with a loud voice, said ;
" Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit."
Till: CRUCIFIXION 125
And saving this, and bowing His head, lie gave
up the ghost.
And the earth quaked, and the rocks were rent,
and the graves were opened, and many bodies of
the saints that had slept, arose, and coining out of
the tombs alter His Resurrection, came into the
holy city and appeared to many.
And they that were watching Jesus, having seen
the earthquake and the things that were done, were
sore afraid, saying: "Indeed, this was the Son of
God." And all the multitude of them that were
come toother to that sight, and saw the things
that were done, returned striking their breasts
(Matth. '21. Mark 15. Luke ^J. John 19).
See Calvary and the surrounding country at the
beginning of the three hours. Amid the gathering
darkness, the three crosses facing west. The figures
of the crucified standing out white and gaunt in the
gloom.
Watch the immense concourse moving up towards
the central cross. Notice how the priests, Pharisees,
and ancients go among the people, stirring them up
to revile Him who hangs there. See group after
group of the priests coming to the cross, looking up,
wucvcrinjv their heads in mockery. Observe the
soldiers keeping guard, and casting lots for TTis poor
garments. At a little distance our Lady, St. John,
and the holy women.
Hear the jeers, reproaches, blasphemies of the
priests, their thanksgiving to God who has delivered
the nation from this seducer. Hear them quieting
126 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
the people frightened by the darkness. Hearken to
our Lord saying : " Father, forgive them."
See, during the next hour, the earth in darkness ;
the space round the cross free ; the enemies of Christ,
fearful and uneasy, seeking their homes ; the people,
terrified, gathered together in groups, looking in
silence towards the Crucified; the centurion and his
band in reverent altitudes ; the Blessed Mother and
her companions standing beneath the cross.
Hear the people speaking in whispers ; talking of
our Lord's miracles and goodness ; saying, " He hath
lone all things well " ; pitying Him ; praising Him ;
condemning their rulers. Hear the words of the
thieves; our Lord's words to the good thief and to
His Mother. Hear Him saying : " I thirst."
See, during the third hour, the Mount becoming
deserted ; the multitude going away striking their
breasts ; the sacred Body drooping towards the earth.
Mary still standing, still gazing upwards, waiting
for the end.
See the veil of the Temple torn asunder ; the rocks
rent ; the tombs opened ; the dead rising.
Hear the stillness round the cross as the ninth hour
draws on ; the last words of our Lord ; the loud cry
with which His Soul goes forth.
II.— -And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all
things to Myself. -John xii.
See Jerusalem on the day of the Crucifixion.
About two millions of people in and around the city.
Look at the crowds winding through the dark, narrow
TTTE CRUCIFIXION 127
thoroughfares, pouring- through the Judgment Gate,
and congregating in vast masses round the place of
execution. "\Vatch the three condemned as they pain
fully toil up the little mound outside the walls known
as " the place of Calvary.'' The soldiers clear a space
on the summit. The crosses are thrown on the
ground. The executioners lay hands on our Lord.
How tenderly we prepare for death those whom we
love ! What circumspection there is in our words,
what care to banish sights and sounds that would
disturb, to provide what may soothe, to soften in
every way love can suggest the terrible parting oi
soul and body !
Our Lord is prepared for death by His executioners,
lie has been made to carry His cross. All the dread
preparations are made before His eyes and those of
His Mother. There is no pity, no attempt to miti
gate in the very least the awful sentence of cruci
fixion. The drink offered by custom to the con
demned to lessen their pain, is mixed with gall for
Him. The crown of thorns has been so knocked
about, so roughly removed and replaced, that His
head is a muss of wounds. His sacred body is but one
sore, not the lightest texture could touch it without
causing Him exquisite pain. Is it in expiation of
our vanity that He would have His vesture during
the whole of His Passion a source of torture to Him?
The sweat of blood in the Garden that trickled down
to the ground must have first saturated II is garments.
Think how hard and stiff they would become when
dry ; what agony they would occasion Him after (he
128 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
scourging and along the Way of the Cross as they
rubbed against the raw wounds, when they were
dragged off and on, when He fell ; what He will suffer
when they are torn from Him now. He has come to
His death in a state too horrible for description, yet
not piteous enough to arouse compassion in the
thousands that have come to see Him die.
The executioners order Him to lie down upon the
cross that they may take the measure for the nails.
This done, they thrust Him aside whilst they bore the
holes in the wood. See Him pushed here and there,
not knowing where to stand in His misery, as closer
and closer, driven forward by the multitude pressing
up the slope, crowds the coarse, cruel rabble. It is
with difficulty the centurion and his band keey> it
back, and leave the executioners room to do their
work. Pity our Lord. Try to realise what He
suffers. Wonder how His love could go so far ; how
the reverence due to Hi9 Majesty did not compel Him
to forego ignominy such as this !
All is ready. The condemned are called for.
Each lays himself down upon his cross, the thieves
blaspheming in their despair, our Lord praying. The
terror of His human Soul is beyond words. No
martyr, no criminal ever quailed like this before tor
ture and death. For He knows all that is to come.
Every pang from now to the death struggle is vividly
present to Him. He does not divert His mind from
it. He does not seek to repulse the horror it pro
duces. He allows it to assail Him with the most
vehement repugnance. And He overcomes all with
THE CRUCIFIXION 129
the love that will love us even unto death. Compas
sionate Him in this strife between the inferior part of
the Soul that shrinks from torments and death, and
the superior which rules that at sueh exceeding cost
we shall be redeemed. From this strife we learn
that repugnance which is conquered by the energy
of the will, far from lessening enhances the heroism
of love.
Our Lord lies down upon His cross and stretches
out His arms. An executioner holds His right hand.
Another takes a four-sided nail about three inches
long, and with one strong blow drives it through the
palm into the wood. A convulsive shudder runs
through the whole frame; the limbs contract; the
knees are drawn up. The left hand will not reach the
hole on the other side. They draw a noose round
the wrist and stretch the arm till the sinews give way
and the joints are dislocated. At last they bring it
to its place, and a blow nails it fast. By means of
ropes the feet are drawn to the holes in the stem of
the cross and nailed there. Then the executioners
rise and survey their work.
How different is the live crucifix from the white
figure, unscathed except for the wounds in hands and
feet, that we behold so often and so heedlessly ! The
Form hung aloft on Calvary is a sight almost too
fearful to look upon. One alone of the many tortures
inflicted on It was sufficient to cause death. The
scourgino-, the thorny crown, the thirst, would have
killed the strongest man. This .Man is the most
exquisitely fashioned of the children of men: Hi?
K
130 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
Body the most delicate, His Soul the most sensitive.
How, then, can He endure so much ? Because His
Divinity supports Him, not for the mitigation but
for the prolongation of His pain. It sustains the
physical frame that it may suffer beyond the limit of
natural endurance. But It hides Itself from the
Soul that He may sorrow as no other has ever
sorrowed : " He treadeth the winepress of the fierce
ness of the wrath of God, the Almighty "( Apoc. 19).
" I have trodden the winepress alone " (Isaias G3).
Besides the agony in hands and feet, and the dis
location of the bones, there is the torture suffered on
or near the surface of the body, where physicians say
pain is most intense by reason of the nerves that are
there. These nerves through the rending of the
flesh in the scourging, are exposed, and the pain
caused by dragging the limbs to and fro over the
rough wood has been excruciating.
The crosses are raised into position ; dropped into
their sockets and made firm by wedges driven in with
heavy blows. The dislocated limbs have to bear the
shock and the torture of these blows and of those by
which the title of the cross is nailed above His head.
The whole weight of the disjointed frame is now
borne by the wounded hands and feet. The head
falls forward, unable in its agony to hold itself erect.
The eyes see, dimly through the darkness that has
fallen on the earth, a vast throng pouring through
the Judgment Gate and massing itself round
Calvary ; every face turned towards Him, some few
in pity, almost all in hate. He sees into every soul
THE CRUCIFIXION 131
there. He knows what lie has done for each, what
He is doing now for each. He offers His torments
and His death, not only for all before Him there, but
for every soul that has been created and that is to
be created to the end of time.
Pushing their way through the people, come a
crowd of priests, scribes, and ancients. They stand
triumphant before the cross to mock Him in lliy
misery: "Yah! thou that destroyest the Temple of
God and in three days dost rebuild it, save thy own
self. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the
cross. . . He saved others, Himself He cannot
save. Let Christ the King of Israel come down now
from the cross that we may see and believe." The
soldiers mock Him, offering Him vinegar and sav
ing : " If thou be the King of the Jews, save thyself."
One of the robbers blaspheming says : "If thou
be Christ, save thyself and us." Priests, soldiers,
thieves — all taunting Him with His Helplessness ;
all defying Him; all uniting in the cry: "Come
down from the cross ! "
The darkness deepens. With it comes fear over
the souls of men. The scoffers are silent, " And all
the multitude of them thai were come together to
that sight, and saw the things that were done, re
turned striking their breasts." Now at last there is
room for the Mother by the side of her Son. John
leads her to the foot of the cross. Magdalen, heart
broken, falls down before it. The Ueloved disciple
looks up into His face on whose breast he leaned at
supper last night.
132 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
The hours drag slowly on. Three hours the Son
hangs in torture, His limbs trembling, His wounds
smarting in the chill March air. Three hours His
Mother stands beside Him — erect, not swooning, not
turning her eyes or her mind from the contemplation
of the Yictim hanging there, with whose bloody
Sacrifice she unites the agony of her bleeding heart.
She stands: her delicate, sensitive frame strung up
to that endurance. She stands : unfaltering in her
oblation, whilst Simeon's sword makes its way deeper
and deeper into her soul. ]N"o weakness, no lamenta
tion : " Ecce ancilla ! " as in the quiet midnight at
Nazareth. It is the Father's Will : " Behold the
handmaid of the Lord !"
The end draws on. During the three hours the
body has been continually sinking, widening the
wounds till it seems as if the hands must give way
and it will be torn from the nails. The words that
have come painfully at intervals have ceased. The
breathing becomes more and more laboured. The
head droops lower on the breast. The eyes get glazed
and fixed. A grey shadow settles on the face. There
are two gasping sobs — the next, surely, must be the
last. Suddenly, the head lifts ; the lips part. A
loud cry goes out over the Mount and is carried far
into the distance : " Father, into Thy hands I com
mend My spirit !" The head drops on the breast.
The Heart is still. The Soul is with the Father. He
has been obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. He has loved us to the end.
THE CRUCIFIXION
Was Jesus comforted that hour
By thought of 1110 ;
Counting my love a meet return
For Calvary ?
Or was it my ingratitude
These many years
That filled His Heart with agony
His eyes with tears ?
III.— Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do. —Luke xxiii.
Mark the time and the place of this prayer.
Our Lord is lying on the cross. His right hand
has been nailed. The left is being violently dragged
to its place. The sinews give way under Ihe strain.
The joints are dislocated. At last it is stretched
to the hole, and with heavy strokes of the hammer
the second nail is driven in. The whole body
writhes in agonv. The knees are drawn up ; the
eyes close; the brow contracts with the intensity of
the torture. Xow is the moment of His prayer. He
begins at once II is work of Mediator; begins as men
are nailing Him to the cross, to secure their pardon :
" Father, forgive them for they know not what they
do." Is not the self- forget fulness of our Blessed
Lord almost beyond belief! Would not His charity
prove Him to be divine were all other evidence
wanting !
134 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
The Jews had seen Him give sight to the blind,
cleanse the lepers, free the possessed, cure every
disease and every infirmity, raise the dead. They
had heard Him preach a sublime doctrine, silence
all cavillers, speak as never man spake. He had
read their thoughts, fulfilled their prophecies, proved
Himself their long-expected Messiah. And they
had hated and rejected Him. They had shut their
eyes to His miracles, and their ears to His invita
tions and His warnings. They had stirred up His
people against Him, delivered Him to the Gentiles
to be put to death, and invoked His Blood in con
demnation upon themselves and upon their children.
How could He find excuse for them? How could
He plead their ignorance?
0 tender and forgiving Lord ! who will fear Thy
condemnation after this? Who will fear Thee
even as Judge, provided we do not refuse the pardon
for wrhich Thou pleadest so earnestly ! Can I mis
trust Thee, or doubt Thy most earnest desire to
save me? Will not ihe charity that made Thee
defend Thy crucifiers help Thee to find excuse, too,
for me. Indeed I did not know what I was doing
when I sinned against Thee. I do not understand
even now the hatefulness and ingratitude of sin.
It does not fill me with horror for I am blind. I
fall into it easily for I am weak. Plead for me,
dear Lord, with the Father that I may be forgiven
for the past, and so enlighten and strengthen me
that I may be kept from sin for the time to come.
" They know not what they do." How different
THE CRUCIFIXION 135
are my harsh judgments and my vindictiveness from
the charity of my Saviour. How hard I find it to
make excuses foY those who injure or annoy me.
Do I even attempt to make any?
habit of taking the severest view of an action whicl
will bear an unfavourable interpretation? And of
iustifving my severity on the ground that I cannot
shut my eye's to the truth ? What should I have
said on Calvary? Could I have found a single
pretext for extenuating the sin of the Jews? Yet
the Eternal Truth excused them and pleaded for
them.
0 meek and loving Lord, make my heart like unt<
Thine, patient, kind, thinking no evil, bearing all
things, believing all things, hoping all things, en
during all things !
" Father, forgive them ! ' Offer this tender prayer,
0 Lord, for all near and dear to me who stand in
need of Thy special mercy; for all who at this hour
are crucifying again the Son of God ( Heb. 0). In
Thy prayer is my trust. " For if any man sin we
have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
just. And He is the propitiation for our sins, and
not for ours only but also for those of the whole
world" (I. -John, 2). Wherefore, "0 God, our
Protector, look on the face of Thy Christ" (Ps.^SM).
Hear His prayer for all sinners. Be infinitely
merciful in Thy judgments o£ us all. 'Thou
sparest all because they are Thine, 0 Lord who
lovest souls" (Wisd. 11). "For if we sin we are
Thine" (Wisd. 15). Frail children, yet Thy children
136 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
still. Eecall us to Thyself by the grace of contrition.
Receive us for His sake who gave Himself for us.
And grant us that forgiveness for which He prayed.
IV.— And he said to Jesus : Lord, remember me when Thou
shalt come into Thy Kingdom.
And Jesus said to him: Amen, I say to thee this day thou
shalt be with Me in Paradise.— Luke xxiii.
What is there kingly about Him as He hangs on
His cross between the thieves? He lies under the
same condemnation with them. He is placed in the
midst as the most guilty. He has been followed to
the place of execution with a vehemence of hatred
which they have been spared. Above His head is
His cause written : " King of the Jews." But it is
nailed there in derision. Covered with wounds and
bruises, defiled with spittle, the reproach of men and
the outcast of the people, what is there to proclaim
Him King?
Look at the poor thieves, His companions. They
are suffering sorely. Yet something yonder is
riveting the attention of one, and stirring his soul to
its depths. In that fellow-sufferer on his left, that
Man tortured almost out of the likeness of man, he
discerns a majesty that neither pain nor indignity
can disturb. He sees Him looking down with
gentleness on the rabble that are feasting their eyes
on His agony. From the parched lips he hears no
word of indignation or complaint ; but again and
a^ain, broken by the sobs of the death struggle :
THE CRUCIFIXION 137
" Father forgive them." Ho looks, Ho listens. He
ponders. Grace comes and is not rejected. Faith
shows him in this outcast the King of Kings. Hope
that was dead an hour ago revives. Love draws
him strangely to this Friend found so late. For
the robber feels He is not a King only, but a Friend.
He has not spoken, but His eyes have turned this
way more than once, and whilst that look rested on
him all pain was forgotten. Who can it be that has
power to draw his soul like this? Oh that he could
fling himself at His feet; that he might belong to
Him ; that he might be with Him in that life on
which they are entering as he is with Him now ; that
he might not be altogether forgotten by Him whose
presence is soothing his last hour ! A passionate
desire wakes within his soul to reveal itself, to cast
itself on the mercy of Him who hangs there. But
will this Holy One spurn him? Will his King
reject him ? Pie flings away the thought. He
gives no heed to the reviling of his fellow-robber;
no heed to the fury he will provoke down there. A
cry goes forth : ki Lord, remember me when Thou
shalt come into Thy Kingdom ! ''
And see! The thorn-crowned head that lay
drooping on the breast is lifted. It turns to him.
The eyes dulling with the mist of death, painfully
raise themselves to his. The dry lips open, and
words come thick and slow : '' Amen — I say — to
thee — this day thou shalt — be with Me — in
Paradise."
A remembrance was all the thief had asked. The
138 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
answer was pardon for the sins of a life, final perse
verance, canonisation while living, the promise of
heaven, and — happiest of all — reunion with his
Master before the sun had set. Can we trust our
Lord to be tender and generous with us when we
return to Him ? Does not His royal Heart proclaim
Him King !
Remember me! The thief had but a short space
for prayer. He had much to pray for. In two
words he prayed, and his prayer covered all his
needs.
I, too, have but a short time for prayer. Life will
soon be done, the little space wherein I am to obtain
from God all I want for my eternal happiness. And
I, like the thief, may be content with the cry that
includes every petition : " Lord, remember me ! "
Remember me in niy present necessities, in the
actual state of my soul as it is in Thy sight.
Remember its wounds and its weakness, the result
o<f sin in the past. Remember its trials, its temp
tations, its weariness. Remember the peculiar
difficulties and dangers consequent on temperament,
early influences, circumstances, and the way my will
has borne itself towards all these things.
Remember,. 0 Lord, the love with which from
eternity Thou hast brooded over my soul ; with
which Thou didst create, and redeem, and sanctify
it. Remember Thine ideal in creating it, and the
graces Thon hast prepared for it with a view to that
ideal. Remember that "the gifts and the calling
THE CRUCIFIXION 139
of God are without repentance " (Rom. 11); that
Thy love and Thy purpose remain firm in spite of
the waywardness by which I have crossed Thy
designs. That I may not disappoint Thee, may
not waste what Thou hast lavished on me, or lessen
by any shortcoming on my part the glory Thou hast
put it in my power to render Thee — for Thine own
sake, therefore, my God, — remember me.
Remember my desires — those aspirations after
better things that are the fruit of Thy grace; that
subsist in spite of all my inconsistencies and
failings.
Remember my responsibilities — the dread influ
ence which, whether I will or no, 1 exercise on those
about me, those especially who are dependent on
me.
Remember me, 0 Lord, when the figure of this
world is passing away, when we shall see Thee
coming in glory to judge the living and the dead.
Remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy
Kingdom, that where Thou art I too may be.
Remember me in lii'e, remember me in death;
in time and in eternit, 0 Lord, remember nie !
V. _ When Jesus therefore had seen His Mother and the
disciple standing whom He loved, He saith to His Mother :
Woman, behold thy son.
After that He saith to the disciple : Behold thy Mother. And
from that hour the disciple took her to his own.
She was His last gift kept for the end. lie had
declared His Father to be ours : " 1 ascend to My
140 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
Father and to your Father" (John 20). He had
promised us His Holy Spirit : " If I go I will send
Him to you" (John 16). He had given us Him
self; "This is My Body. . . . This is My
Blood " (Matth. 26). He had parted for our sakes
with all He had in this world — His followers, His
friends, His fame, His honour. What was left to
Him ? She to whom He came at first, His Mother.
He will give her away now. We must not be able
to say there is anything however dear to Him how
ever specially His own, that He has not shared with
us. He must prove His right to the title of our
Elder Brother by making His Mother the Mother
of us all. As He has said : " My Father and your
Father," He will say : " My Mother and yours."
Heartbroken, she was standing beneath His cross
by the disciple whom He loved. Jesus saith to her:
" Woman, behold thy son." After that He saith to
the disciple : " Behold thy Mother."
" And from that hour the disciple took her to his
own." He took her to sanctify the home at Ephesus
and Jerusalem as with her Divine Son she had sanc
tified the home at Nazareth. It is the mother that
makes the home. It is her influence that pervades
it and determines its spirit. She is its brightness
and its joy, the common possession and resource,
the comforter, the peacemaker, the provider, the
counsellor. The Mother of God is given to Chris
tian homes to be all this to them. But the gift must
be accepted. John received with reverence, grati
tude, and love the treasure bequeathed to him. We
must do the like.
THE CRUCIFIXION 141
0 Mother of Jesus be to me what tliou wert to
the beloved Disciple. Be to my home what thou
wert to his. Like John I receive thee as a precious
gilt to me and mine. Like him I promise thee the
honour, love, and trust of a child. Like him 1
take thee to my own.
VI. — My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken
Me? Mark xv.
Our Lord loves to call Himself " the Son of
Man," and there is none among- Tlis many titles
to which lie has more fully proved His claim. He
came to us in His Incarnation resolved to share with
us all He could share. He would come down to our
level. He would know by experience our trials and
our sorrows. In the execution of His design there
were difficulties all but insuperable. But the Omni
potence of His Love overcame them. We are way
farers, journeying painfully to our Country, to the
Vision of God there which will satisfy every desire.
His Soul enjoyed the Beatific Vision from the
moment of Its creation. And that Vision is in
compatible with pain. But His Almighty Power
could suspend Its effects. He suspended them.
Now He could suffer with us cold, heat, hunger,
weariness. Sickness He could not suffer. But He
would more than compensate for this by the tor
ments of His Passion. "From the sole of the foot
to the top of the head there should be no soundness
in Him, wounds and bruises, and swelling sores''
142 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
(Isaias 1). Whilst we employ anaesthetics, and ask
for miracles to avert suffering, He will use His
Omnipotence to bring it within His reach. Thus
will He be at one and the same time with us on the
way to cheer and support, and at the term to reward
us.
But there was a deeper depth yet to which He
must descend if He would be like us in all things.
Sin has fixed a gulf between us and our God. It
has hidden His face from us, and then left us wail
ing in our despair. Here surely the Son of Man
must part company with us, He " who did no sin
neither was guile found in his mouth " (1 Peter 2).
No, for He is come to seek and to save that which
was lost. He will follow us down into our
misery that He may rescue us. Sin cannot touch
Him. But its chastisement He can draw down
upon Himself. He has undertaken to satisfy for us to
the full, to bear all that He may bear consistently
with the dignity of His Person. Therefore He will
endure as far as possible the most awful form of
human suffering — separation from God, dereliction
by God.
" When the sixth hour was come there was dark
ness over the whole earth until the ninth hour "
(Mark 15). And there was darkness deeper and
more terrible over the human Soul of Jesus. Among
His unspeakable sufferings the keenest was this
hiding of the face of the Father. We have no
thoughts or images whereby to bring home to our
selves in the very least the love with which the
THE CRUCIFIXION 143
Soul of Christ turned to the Father. " I and the
Father are one " (John 10). " As the Father
knoweth Me, and I know the Father" (Id). "I
live by the Father" (John 0). To be about Ills
Father's business He had coine into the world. That
His Father's Name might be hallowed lie had
taught, and toiled, and suffered. It was when He
spoke of the Father that 11 is i'ull Heart revealed
Itself. To the Father's face He lifted His eyes,
weary with the sin and sorrow oi earth. The
Father's bosom was rest when heavy at heart He
lay in prayer on the mountain side by night. The
Father's love was His all-sulticing compensation
for the coldness and ingratitude of men.
And now the Father's face was turned away from
Him. The chastisement of our sins was upon Him.
The loneliness, helplessness, terror that the sense
of estrangement from God brings upon the soul, He
allowed Himself to feel for our sakes. Can He des
cend lower than this? Is He not nowT at last like
to us in all things ?
VII. — I thirst. John xix.
God's way is to reward, to punish, to satisfy for
sin, in kind. The working of this law we see through
out the Passion. To make reparation for our mis
use of the senses our Lord suffers from the sole of the
foot to the crown of the head. His thirst on the
cross is an atonement for the sin that lost Paradise
and occasions the loss daily of so many souls.
144 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
" / thirst." Nothing causes thirst like loss of
blood. Think of all He had lost since the Agony
on Thursday night. The abundance of His sweat
in the Garden is shown by the words, "trickling
down upon the ground." Therefore it had first
soaked His garments. The scourging left the body
one raw wound. The bleeding of His head pierced
with the thorns was a still further drain. A terrible
thirst was upon Him when He came to His Cruci
fixion. They offered Him the drink provided for
the condemned, wine mingled with a stupifying sub
stance to deaden somewhat the sufferer's pangs.
" And when He had tasted He would not drink "
(Matth. 27). He refused the draught because He
would admit of no relief. He tasted the gall that
the only sense in Him which had escaped torment
might pay the penalty due to our sinful indulgence
of the taste.
" / thirst" We are told that crucifixion is one of
the most awful forms of death the cruelty of man
has devised. And that among its tortures the most
intolerable is thirst. In itself this is sufficient to
cause death. We know what our Lord could bear
in silence. Yet even He exclaimed : " I thirst."
It was not a complaint. He suffered too willingly
for that. It was a revelation of the extremity of
His pain. And it was a warning. He would let us
know something of what our self-indulgence was cost
ing Him ; of what the sin of intemperance deserves.
Hoarsely the words came from the parched throat.
He could scarcely speak. The tongue was cleaving
THE CRUCIFIXION 145
to tlio palate. Think what His Mother felt as she
looked up and saw His agony and was powerless to
help Him.
Happy the man who — we may hope in pity
raised the sponge of vinegar and water to His lips
to give Him some slight relief! Have I no desire
to give Him any ? Can I watch Him in His tor
ments and be content with a little barren compas
sion ? Can I find it in my heart to leave Him to
suffer quite alone? 0 my Lord let me bear Thee
company by a little voluntary penance. By some
privation, trifling it may be but constant, let me
prove my gratitude for the burning thirst Thou
hast endured for me !
VIII.— Father, into Thy hands I commend My
spirit — Luke xxiii.
Had we been told that our God was coming to
live with us on earth to teach us the way to heaven,
could we have dreamed that He would show us
by His own example how to die? Yet this is the
lesson of all others it behoves us to learn. Death is
the all-important act that cannot be practised 01
repeated, and on the right performance of which
the first time eternity depends.
Would it have been like Him, then, to leave us
untaught? Or to leave the task of teaching us to
any other? No. Therefore He calls us all round
the Cross to see Him die. He will show us bv
His own words and example what is the safest, the
L
146 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
most perfect disposition in which we can render up
our souls to God. Let us listen :
" Father, into Thy hands 1 commend My spirit"
A while ago it was the piteous cry to the Creator :
"My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"
Now it is the filial commendation to the Father.
The lesson He wants us to have ready for our last
hour is confidence. Had there been any other better
He would have taught it. We must learn it now.
We ought to be perpetually rehearsing for the hour
of our death, as the Church teaches us in the Hail
Mary. And the most important thing to rehearse
is confidence. Again and again the trusting com
mendation now, that it may come helpfully to our
lips then : " Father, into Thy hands I commend my
spirit."
Father — my Father, " who hast loved me with an
everlasting love, and drawn me taking pity on me "
( Jer. 31), " who hast made me and created me "
(Deut. 22), and "called me by my name" (Isaias
45), remember that it is not as Maker and Creator
but as Father that Thy Son has taught us to speak
to Thee : " Our Father who art in heaven."
I am a prodigal ; I have wasted my substance. I
am not worthy to be called Thy child. But Thou
art my Father still, merciful, long-suffering, and
full of compassion (2 Esdras 9). " For if we sin we
are Thine" (Wisd. 15).
0 my Father, when life on earth is ending, take
me to the Home where Thou art awaiting me, Thy
House with its many mansions where Thou hast
THE CRUCIFIXION 147
prepared my place. Take me to Thyself who alone
canst satisfy me : " for what Lave I in heaven be
sides Thee!'' (Ps. 72).
Into Thy hatuls — the hands that have formed me
and guided mo, provided for me, shielded me, blessed
me, sustained me to the end :
/ commend — with a child's unquestioning trust
My s/u'rit- my one possession in the hour of my
death, all that will remain to me of what I have iii
this world. As it goes forth from the body, alone
and trembling, assailed by enemies, beyond the
reach of friends, receive it, 6 Father, into Thy hands.
Have pity on it because it is my only one. " Let
not the enemy prevail against it, nor the son of ini
quity have power to hurt it" (Ps. 88). "To the
work of Thy hands stretch out Thy right hand " (Job
14). In union with my dying Saviour I confide it
to Thy mercy now for the hour of my death : Father,
into Thy hands I commend my spirit.
IX. — Come down from the Cross! — Mark xv.
"Come down from the cross!" is like that other
taunt in the desert: k> If Thou be the Son of God,
cast Thyself down " (Luke 4). The challenge was
given, not on (1alvary only or in the wilderness.
Not to Him alone who he suspected might be the
Son of God by nature, but to the adopted children of
God also, the enemy cries out: "Cast thyself down."
There is nothing the devil fears like perseverance
in well doing. He can put up with spasmodic
148 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
piety, with good works zealously begun. What he
dreads is the courage that holds out under difficul
ties, that perseveres to the end. " Come down from
the cross," he says to us.
What is our cross ? All that goes against self.
All that it costs to reduce self ; to act on prin
ciple ; to submit to authority ; to accommodate our
selves to others ; to be faithful to irksome duties ;
to struggle against self-indulgence and the softness
of our times ; to be energetic in attention to our weak
point ; to bear up against failure and the monotony
of daily routine ; to be resigned when all seems to go
wrong. Whatever goes counter to our liking, in
our circumstances, our health, our companions, the
way things are done, the way things turn out — all
this is our cross.
And our enemy says : " Come down from the
cross." Why so much self restraint? Take things
easily : violence never lasts. Do as others do, as
So-and-so, a good person does. Have a good time
whilst you can.
We, like our Master, have to turn a deaf ear to
the tempter, to hold out to the end, to persevere on
our cross as long as God wills ; battling with suffer
ing, battling with self, often by that hardest form
of conflict — endurance. The hour of rest will come
for us as it came for Him. After the temptation
in the desert " the devil left Him, and behold Angels
came and ministered to Him " (Matth. 4). After
the final contest with the Evil One on Calvary,
" Christ dieth no more, death shall no more have
THE CRUCIFIXION 149
dominion over Him "(Horn. (J). Hut until (iod's
hour came for the cessation of the simple, Jin
persevered1 on His cross. He was taken down by
the Father's Will when the time was come.
X.— So he became their Saviour ... in His love and in His
mercy He redeemed them. — Isaias Ixiii.
(1) God so loved the world as to give Jlis Only-
begotten Son that whosoever beJievcth in Him may
not perish but may have everlasting- life (John •']).
(2) If thou didst know the gift of God ! (John 4).
('3) You were not redeemed with corruptible
things, as gold and silver, but with the precious
Blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1).
(4) You are not your own for you are bought with
a great price (1 Cor. (5).
(5) Christ hath loved us and hath delivered Him
self for us (Ephes. 5).
(G) Loved us and washed us from our sins in His
own Blood (Apoc. 1).
(7) Loved me and delivered Himself for me
(Galat. 2).
(8) Who, then, shall separate us from the love of
Christ? (Rom. 8).
(9) The Lamb that was slain is worthy to re
ceive ]K>wer, and divinity, and wisdom, and strength,
and honour, and glory, and benediction (Apoc. f>).
(10) If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ,
let him be anathema (1 Co'1 1G).
III.— THE GLORIOUS MYSTERIES
THE RESURRECTION
I.— This is the day which the Lord hath made: let us be
glad and rejoice therein. — Ps. cxvii.
And in the end of the Sabbath, when it began to
dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary
Magdalen and Salome to the sepulchre, the sun being
now risen. And they said one to another : " Who
shall roll us back the stone from the door of the
sepulchre? " And looking, they saw the stone rolled
back. For it was very great-
She (Magdalen) ran, therefore, and cometh to
Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus
loved, and saith to them: "They have taken away
the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not
where they have laid Him."
And entering into the sepulchre, they (the other
two women, Mary of Tames, and Salome) saw a young
man sitting at the right side clothed with a white
robe, and they were astonished. Who said to them :
" Be not affrighted, you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who
was crucified. lie is not here, for He is risen as
He said. Come and see the place where the Lord
was laid. And going quickly tell His disciples and
Peter that He is risen. And behold, He will go
154 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
before you into Galilee. There you shall see Him
as He told you. Lo! I have foretold it to you."
But they going out fled from the sepulchre ; for a
trembling and fear had seized them ; and they said
nothing to any man, for they were afraid. And
they went . . . quickly . . . with fear and
great joy, running to tell His disciples.
But Mary stood at the sepulchre without, weeping.
Now as she was weeping, she stooped down, and
looked into the sepulchre. And she saw two angels
in white, sitting, one at the head, and one at the
feet, where the body of Jesus had been laid. They
say to her: "Woman, why weepest thou?" She
saith to them : " Because they have taken away my
Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him/'
When she had thus said, she turned herself back,
and saw Jesus standing ; and she knew not that it
was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her : " Woman, why
weepest thou ? whom seekest thou ?" She thinking
that it was the gardener, saith to Him : "'Sir, if thou
hast taken Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid
Him ; and I will take Him away."
Jesus saith to her : " Mary." She turning, saith
to Him: " Rabboni," (which is to say: Master).
And behold Jesus met them (the other two
women), saying: "All hail." But they came up,
and took hold of His feet, and adored Him. Then
Jesus said to them : " Fear not. Go, tell My brethren
that they go into Galilee, there they shall see Me."
And it was Mary Magdalen, and Joanna and Mary
of James and the other two women that were with
TJ1E RESURRECTION 155
them, who told those Ihiners to the Apostles. And
these words seemed to them as idle tales; and they
did not believe them.
Now when it was late that same day, the
first of the week, and the doors were shut,
where the disciples were gathered together for fear
of the Jews, Jesus rame and stood in the midst,
and said to them : " Peace ho to you, it is I, fear not.''
But they being troubled and frighted, supposed that
they saw a spirit.
And He said to them: "Why are you troubled,
and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? See
My hands and feet, that it is I Myself; handle, and
see; for a spirit haih not flesh arid bones, as you
see Me to have." And when He had said this, He
shewed them His hands and feet, and His side. The
diseiples therefore were glad, when they saw the
Lord (Matth. 28, Mark 1C, Luke 24, John 20).
See the Soul of Christ passing swift as light from
the mangled Body on the Cross to the Limbo of the
Fathers. See the vast sombre region lit up at its
entrance as with a thousand suns. Behold how
by one impulse its eager millions are borne towards
Him and fall prostrate in adoration — Adam and Eve ;
David and Isaias, the Prophets of the Incarnation ;
the Gentile Job; St. Joseph; the holy Baptist.
Rear the acclamations, the praise, the thanks
giving.
Taste the jubilee of that hour in Limbo when up
above on the frightened earth all was darkness and
156 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
desolation. Notice that this difference is due to one
cause only — the Presence of Christ.
II. — Free among the dead.— Ps. Ixxxvii.
We speak of helplessness during life, but what is
it to our utter helplessness after death ! Think of
it. The body carried anywhere, treated in any way,
delivered over to the dishonour of the grave. The
soul, free a moment ago to choose its course,
fixed now in its eternal state ; presented at the Judg
ment seat for sentence, and taken instantly to the
place where the sentence is to be carried out. If
to the prison-house of Hell or Purgatory, what help
lessness for it there ! Yes, truly, our helplessness
after death is absolute.
Not thus was it with our Head. A moment before
death He was " as a man without help " (Ps. 87).
Hands and feet nailed, every limb, every nerve with
out help in their intolerable pain : His mighty Soul,
crushed under the weight of the Father's anger,
summing up Its anguish in the cry : " My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ?"
After death — the moment after — what a change !
The body, lifeless, it is true, but embalmed with the
Divinity, awaiting in a three days' rest the instant
of its glorious Resurrection : "In peace, in the
selfsame I will sleep and I will rest" (Ps. 4). The
Soul — oh what a change for It ! " Free among the
dead" (Ps. 87). Free, absolutely free, free as It
had never been before. The suffering that had
THE RESURRECTION 157
weighed upon It from the moment of the Incarnation
— gone ! The ever-present sight of Calvary- — gone !
The burden of the sins of men — gone ! The cloud
that hid the face of the Father — gone! The very
possibility of: pain- — gone from It for ever!
() my Lord, this is the thought that fills my soul
with such overflowing gladness that Thy blessed
Human Soul is free at last. What must have been
the weight that lay upon It always during the three
and thirty years ! Always, always. When It prayed
and laboured. When taking in all sin and sorrow,
past, present, and to come, It suffered the pain of
tli is knowledge to coexist with the bliss of the
Beatific Vision. Above all, when It bore the hiding
of the Father's Face during the Passion ! 0 well-
beloved Son, begotten of the Father from eternity,
what must have been the torture of separation from
Him with whom Thou hast but one undivided
Nature : what the relief the instant after death,
that that pain was passed away for ever.
" Free among the dead." This is the glad
thought that fills my soul with peace and joy as
the clock strikes three 011 Good Friday; that is
quiet jubilee all through the hours of Saturday ;
that leaps up in exultation at sunrise on Easter Day.
Free ! Free ! Free ! It was the cry of Mary's heart
when in Thy risen beauty Thou didst stand before
her. She looked at eyes, and hands, and feet — free!
The smile for the first time was free. In Beth
lehem, in Nazareth, when Thou earnest to her at
intervals during the Public Life, Thy smile was al-
158 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
ways the sunshine of her soul. Yet there was that
about it which told of the hidden burden of the Man
of Sorrows. On Easter morning that smile was
free, and she drank in its new beauty with the adora
tion of the creature and the overflowing joy of the
Mother's heart.
I adore and rejoice with her. 0 my Risen Lord,
I can say nothing, think of nothing yet but this :
" Free ! Free ! I will rejoice presently with Thy
friends to whom Thou bearest Thine own joy. I
will see Thee freeing them from doubt, and fear,
and sorrow. I will ask Thee to free me
from all that stands between my soul and Thee.
But now for a little while let me kneel before Thee —
quite alone. Let me pour out my heart to Thee
who readest it through and through, and knowest
all it would say, and wilt count as faith, and love,
and adoration, and praise, its cry of Easter joy —
"Free! Free!"
III.— Hail ! full of grace, the Lord is with thee.— Luke i.
She is alone. All day she has been the refuge
of the scattered flock. One by one they have made
their way to her, Peter, and James, and Magdalen,
and Salome. They could not share her faith and
her hope, but her presence soothed them in their
wretchedness. Instinctively they turned to her.
Into her ear they poured their bitter sorrow. The
sympathy of her motherly heart kept their hearts
from hardening into despair. Yet their tears flowed
THE RESURRECTION 159
faster as they looked into her face. She was all they
had now; all that remained to them of Him. And
she was so like Him. Her voice had His tones in it.
Her ways were like His. Her counsel reminded (hem
of Him. Kven thus He would have said. So He used
to comfort them when they came to Him in trouble.
Yes, they must keep near her. Shared with her, their
anguish was less intolerable, and, somehow, almost
seemed less hopeless.
Thus, in the darkness of her own desolation, our
Mother began her appointed task. She was Com
forter of the afflicted, ''giving to all abundantly
and upbraiding not/' all that sad Saturday.
And now night has come and she is alone. Even
Magdalen has left her side. There is still something
that faithful heart may do for Him. The spices are
bought, but there are preparations to be made for
the early visit to the Sepulchre on the morrow.
The Mother of Sorrows is alone. Yes, alone.
He must have her all to Himself when He comes.
Xot even Gabriel here, as in the first coming to
Nazareth ; unless, indeed, as her Guardian Angel,
he is privileged to be near her even now.
The sweetest and tenderest of our Lord's visits on
Easter Day, those in which He had wounds to heal
deeper even than His dear Magdalen's, are shrouded
in secrecy till the day when the secrets of all hearts
shall be revealed. Of the interview with Peter we
are told nothing beyond the fact. Of the interview
with His Mother, what need to tell even the fact!
What heart that believes He came to the world by
160 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
her, that she stood by Him to the end, has to be told
on the word of God, that He came to her first in
His risen life !
She is alone — stricken as no creature has ever
been, as no other mother could have been, and lived.
She has borne with Him all they undertook to bear
together for our sakes, when she said at Nazareth :
" Ecce ancilla !" She has lived it through, but the
frail vessel is all but shattered. His Presence alone
can revive the spirit that is pining for Him ; His
Voice alone recall to it joy and gladness ; His Hand
draw the sword from out that broken heart. " For
He woundeth and cureth, He striketh, and His
Hands shall heal " (Job 5).
The night wears on. Again and again her eye
turns to the window that looks east. No streaks of
light as yet. She waits in silence and in hope, the
handmaid of the Lord, hastening by her desires His
second coming into the world in His Risen life, as,
we are told, she had accelerated the hour of the
Incarnation : " 0 God, my God, for Thee do I watch
at break of day. For Thee my soul hath thirsted ;
for Thee my flesh, 0 how many ways ! " (Ps. 62.)
"As the hart panteth after the fountains of water,
so panteth my soul after Thee, 0 God ! My soul
hath thirsted after the living God ... My
tears have been my bread day and night, whilst it is
said to me daily : ' Where is thy God ? ' " (Ps. 41.)
Wait, blessed mourner, wait ! Light is breaking
in the east. It begins to dawn towards the first day
of the week. Tet a few moments and "thy Light
THE RESURRECTION 161
shall come, and the glory of the Lord shall rise upon
tbee " (Isaias GO). A few moments and " the Lord
God shall wipe away all tears from thy eyes "
(Apoc. 21). "If He delay, wait for Him,' for He
will surely come and will not be slack " (Ilab. 2).
" Sing praise and rejoice, 0 daughter of Sion ! for
behold I come" (Zach. 2). "I am risen, and am
still with thee."
See her! One moment in desolation worse than
death. The next, at His feet, in His embrace who
is " the breath of her mouth, Christ the Lord "
(Lament. 4). She has fallen at His feet, for He is
God. He has folded her in His arms, for He is her
Son.
0 Son of Mary, was there ever joy on earth like
the joy of Thy Heart when Thou didst meet Thy
Virgin Mother, and fold her in that Easter embrace,
and according to the multitude of the sorrows of
her heart make her glad with Thy consolation?
Were ever tears so blissful, Mother, as those
which were wiped away by the Hand of thy Son
and thy God in that first hour of the Resurrection ?
Look, blessed one, through those tears of joy and
see that it is He Himself. Look upon that face,
the face of thy Christ, Look upon the face? on which
the Angels desire to look; thy right is before every
other. Look with thy adoration and thv love.
Worship for us what for us was buffeted, and
bruised, and dishonoured. Worship it with thv
praise and thy thanksgiving, with the humility of
M
162 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
His handmaid, with, the pride of Thy Mother's heart.
See with delight how the dazzling glory of that face
leaves uneclipsed the human beauty of the three and
thirty years. 0 blessed among women, blessed by
all generations, enter into the joy of thy Lord ; share
in the triumph of thy Son !
" The winter is now past, the rain is over and
gone." Hail ! full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
IV.— Jesus saith to her: "Mary." She turning, saith to
Him: " Rabboni."— John xx.
How faithful the holy women were to our Lord
from the time they attached themselves to Him !
They followed Him about during His preaching,
ministering to Him of their substance, unmindful
of private interests and social distinctions when
there was question of His service. Salome and
" Mary of James " gave up their sons to Him,
Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward, and Magdalen,
made themselves the associates and helpmates of
the wives of fishermen.
But faithful among the faithful was Mary Mag
dalen ; the most zealous, the most devoted, their
recognised leader, as Peter among the Twelve.
During the forty hours from the Crucifixion to the
Resurrection, we find her now with one party, now
with another, so prominent, that in the records of
the Evangelists she stands at times for her whole
company. With Mary of Cleophas at the foot of the
Cross, beside the sinless Mary. When all was over
on Friday evening sitting " with Mary mother of
THE RESURRECTION 1G3
Joseph over against the sepulchre." " Tn tlio end
of the Sabbath coming with Mary the mother of
James to see the sepulchre." And when the Sabbath
was past, going with Salome " to buy sweet spices that
coining they might anoint -Jesus."
"On the jirst day of the week Mary
Magdalen cometh early wlien it was vet
dark unto the sepulchre." A little later
'Mary stood at the sepulchre without weeping."
The Angel had announced the glad news of the Itesur-
rection, and her companions had gone quickly with
fear and creat joy runniiiir to tell His disciples. But
Magdalen stands riveted to the spot where she had
last seen Him, too bewildered by her grief to take in
the purport of the Angel's message. Again and a^ain
she stoops down and looks into the tomb, searching
still through her tears, lest by any oversight she
might have missed Him. Two Angels appear, sitting,
one at the head, one at the foot, where the body of
Jesus had been laid. They say to her: "Woman,
why weepest thou?" She saith to them: "Because
they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where
they have laid Him." When her companions "en
tering Jnio the sepulchre, saw a younir man sitting
at the right side clothed with a white robe, thev were
astonished." Magdalen shows no surprise. She
answers tin1 Angels as if thev were persons whom she
might have expected to find there. Their "shininir
apparel " does not distract her from her jrrief : " Thev
have taken away my Lord, and T know not where
they have laid Him.'
164 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
How could He whom she sought so perseveringly
fail to show Himself to her? His first appearances
were for those who had been faithful to Him unto
death. His Blessed Mother, Mary Magdalen, the
holy women. His Mother has seen Him. Magdalen
is to see Him now.
A sound attracts her attention. She turns her
tearful face to the mouth of the cave and sees One
standing there whom she knows not. Repeating the
Angels' words, He says to her : " Woman, why
weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?"
''Why weepest thou?" There is no chiding in
those tones of pitying tenderness. Presently on the
road to Emmaus He will rebuke two downcast dis
ciples : " 0 foolish and slow of heart, to believe in
all things which the prophets have spoken." Later
on He will upbraid the Eleven " for their incredulity
and hardness of heart." Magdalen's faith and hope
were at fault like theirs. But her love and her tears,
as of old, stayed all upbraiding on His lips. He
had reprehended Simon for his hard thoughts of her.
He had chidden Martha who complained of her. But
for the sinner out of whom He had cast seven devils
He had never a word but of tenderest mercy. Against
the Pharisee He defended her : " Many sins are for
given her because she hath loved much." Against
her sister: "Mary hath chosen the best part which
shall not be taken away from her. " Against His own
disciples : " Let her alone. Why do you molest
her?"
It was her contrite love, her loving contrition, that
Till-: RESURRECTION
thus won His Heart. TTo hud no reproach for her
whose tears were her confession, and sorrow, and
satisfaction. So high was she raised in grace and
favour, that she had her own \vav with Him. Slit;
sent for Him in her trouble: "Lord, lie whom TImu
lovest is sick." And lie came. She expostulated
with Him for His delay: " Lord, if Thou hudst been
here my brother had not died/3 And " Jesus groaned
in the spirit and troubled Himself. She led Him
where she would: "Lord, come and see.'' And
" when He saw her weeping- . . . Jesus wept."
Oh those tears of Mary's, what they obtained from
Christ! Once only had He seemed unmindful of
them. It was three days ago when at the foot of the
Cross they fell like rain, mingling with the blood that
was being1 shed for her. Yet He was heeding them
even then. A higher grace than consolation was
granted her on Calvary — the privilege of sharing in
His own desolation, of tasting next after His Jilessed
Mother the bitterness of His chalice.
She had been made partaker of the sufferings of
Christ: the hour was come for her to share His
triumph and His joy.
"Whom seckest thou?" the Stranger asked.
What ji question for that loving heart. Thou knowest,
Lord, that from the time her tears fell on Thv feet,
she has sought Thee alone. She has sought Thee
humbly, bravely, perseveringly. And Thou hast
said : k> Seek and you shall find."
Thinking she has before her the gardener who if
tactfully approached may aid her in her search, she
166 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
says : " Sir, if thou hast taken Him hence, tell me
where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away."
" Him " — no name. She supposes her Lord to be
the one object in every mind and heart as in her
own.
" I will take Him away." " Love often knows
no men sure but is inflamed above all measure.
Love feels no burden, values no labours,
would willingly do more than it can, complains not
of impossibility because it conceives that it may and
can do all things " (Imit. III., 5).
Our Lord can hide Himself no longer. Jesus
saith to her : " Mary ! " He calls her by her name as
He was wont to do when she sat at His feet at
Bethany. The tones of that Voice are unlike those
of any other — It is Himself ! She turning saith to
Him: "Rabboni!" What fulness, what intensity
of love and joy are summed up in that word. What
rapture is there in this first moment of recognition,
in this sudden transition from the depths of desola
tion to joy that is heaven begun. What compensa
tion and more than compensation for the anguish of
the past is contained in those two words : " Mary ! "
" Rabboiii ! " It is no vision. It is not too good to
be true. See hands, and feet, and side. It is Him
self : " Eabboni ! Master ! " She throws herself at
His feet to kiss them once again. But He has a work
for her to do first : " Go to my brethren and say to
them : ' I ascend to My Father and to your Father,
to My God and to your God.' " Mary Magdalen went
and told them that had been with Him and
THE RESURRECTION H>7
telleth the disciples: "I have see-n ihc Lord and
these things He said to mo."
The Church reserves her Credo for Masses on high
festivals, and for the Feast of her Apostles and
Doctors. One exception she makes, if exception it
can be called. It is for k' the woman that was a
sinner," whose name the Son of God will have associ
ated with His own throughout all time; whom He
Himself has made Doctor, Kvangelist, Apostle to the
Apostles; the bearer of the gladdest tidings earth
has ever heard ; the first preacher of the Gospel of the
Resurrection — blessed Mary Magdalen.
V.— In the evening- weeping shall have place, and in the
morning gladness. — Ps. xxix.
What an evening was that of the first Good Friday
to the disciples of Christ! The Shepherd had been
stricken, and the flock was scattered. Hiding, per
chance, among the tombs in the gloomy valleys round
about Jerusalem, or in obscure corners of the city,
thev irave themselves up to the utter dejection conse
quent on the overthrow of all their hopes.
Sights and sounds of fear were on every side. The
rending of the veil of the Temple and the disclosure
of the Holy of Holies had filled every heart with con
sternation. And men were telling how rocks had
been cloven asunder, and tombs were opening, and
the bodies of the saints, arising, were coming into
the city and appearing to many.
Such testimony to the Divinity of their Master
might surely have saved the disciples from the blank
168 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
despondency which had settled upon them. But
their hopelessness was proof against the voice of
nature as against the voice of the prophets. All
was over. All had ended in failure. The happy
days with Him only made the present and the future
more intolerable. What were they to do ? Go back
to Gralilee and to their nets, and try to forget that for
three years they had been the companions, the inti
mate friends of Jesus of Nazareth?
Such will have been their thoughts as the evening
wore on. When night fell they might have been
seen creeping under cover of the darkness to the
Supper room on Mount Sion. There, in all proba
bility they kept together during the following day.
What a Pasch for them ! Jerusalem was trying
to rejoice, striving to forget in the celebrations of
the Feast the darkness of that awful noon of yester
day. But in vain. From the palaces of Pilate and
Herod, and the Chief Priests, from the Temple Courts
to the remotest tent pitched on the outskirts of the
city, one memory was in all minds, one Name was
in every mouth.
See the Eleven talking together in the Upper
Chamber, humbly gathering from the holy women the
last incidents on Calvary. Watch Peter's face as they
tell how to John, the only one of the Twelve there,
was committed the Blessed Mother. How it was to
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus she had to look
to render the last services to her Son. See how his
tears break forth again and again ; how pitying and
how tender John is with him.
TIIK RKSURltKCTION 169
See Mary in her desolation, bravo, unshaken in
her trust, resuming in her single self the faith and
hope, if not the charity of the infant Church. She
believes in the triumph that is at hand. Hut until
(rod's hour for consolation has come, the anguish of
her soul is supreme. Yet she is not self-centred.
Tier motherly heart goes out to the sorrowing dis
ciples. She strives to soothe them and to reanimate
their hope. And her words have at least this success
that she keeps them together in their desolation.
We wonder, perhaps, that with her absolute faith
in the Resurrection on the third day, our Lady's woe
could have been so complete. But the Apostle tells
us " We are not sufficient for ourselves." We cannot
console ourselves. A comforter must be one from
without, All her life through her Comforter was
Cnd alone. And He was withhold inn- His consola
tion till the appointed hour. "Therefore do I weep,
and my eyes run down with water, because the Com
forter, the relief of my soul, is far from me " (Lament
!)•
As soon as the Sabbath rest is over, Mary Mair-
<lalen, Mary the mother of .lames, and Salome! hasten
to the bazaars to buy spices wherewith to finish the
embalming of the sacred body. During the even
ing they make their preparations, and very early on
the first day of the week "when it was yet dark,"
they set out for the Sepulchre. They must have
known of the stone that closed the entrance, and of
the seal, and the guards. Yet till they were fairly
on their way, no difficulty occurred to'them. Love
170 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
is blind, we are told. It has certainly a marvellous
inability to see obstacles in its path. Even when
hindrances began to force themselves on their atten
tion, they were not dismayed. Nothing affrighted
or stopped them. Neither the darkness, nor the
earthquake, nor guards, nor stone, nor the fear of
the Jews, which, until the coming of the Holy Ghost,
paralysed the Apostles. " Who shall roll us back
the stone," was the only question. " And looking,
they saw the stone rolled back." It is not God's way
to leave unrewarded faith and love such as theirs.
The greater the obstacle the more easily it yields to
love and trust.
We see their confidence again in the absence of
surprise at the miracle worked for them. They took
it as a matter of course that God would help them.
4' And entering into the Sepulchre they saw a young
man sitting at the right side clothed with a white
robe, and they were astonished " — for the first time.
" Who said to them : t Fear not for I know that you
seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He
is risen as He said. Come, and see the place where
the Lord was laid. And going quickly tell His dis
ciples and Peter that He is risen : and behold, He
will go before you into Galilee ; there you shall see
Him. Lo ! I have foretold it to you.' And they
went . . quickly. . . with fear and great
joy, running to tell His disciples."
" And behold Jesus met them, saying : ' All hail.'
But they came up and took hold of His feet and
adored Him. Then Jesus said to them ' Fear not, go
THE RESURRECTION 171
tell My brethren that they go into Galilee, there they
shall see Me.'"
Oh thai wo could share their adoration and their
joy! He is our Master as well as theirs. To each
one of us it is said as we come to meditate on the
Resurrection : " Kilter thou into the joy of thy Lord."
That we could forget ourselves for awhile, and our
little interests and sorrows! That, filled with the
spirit of our Mother, the Church, we could cry out
with lier : "Receive, we beseech Thee, 0 Lord, the
offerings of Thy exulting Church " (Secret for Low
Sunday). "This is the Day which the Lord hath
made, let us be glad and rejoice therein" (Ps. 117).
VI. When it was late and the disciples were gathered together
Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them : " Peace
be to you." John xx.
See the Kleven gathered together at night in the
I'pper Chamber discussing the events of the day.
The women's story had not been believed, but now
Peter has seen the Lord, and unbelief is giving way
to trembling hope ami joy. See Peter in the midst
confirming his brethren according to our Lord's
injunction. See the door opening, and the two
disciples from Kmmaus coming in. 1 hey find a
yery different state of things from what they left in
the morning. Before they can speak, the rest cry
out: "The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared
to Simon." Watch them listening to Peter, ;:nd
then, as the Eleven crowd round, adding their own
172 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
testimony, telling "what things were done in the
way, and how they knew Him in the breaking of
bread."
Notice how the doors are shut for fear of the
Jews. All noises without are hushed, for it is late.
And still the disciples tell and hear unsatisfied the
joyful news. Those who have seen our Lord repeat
their tale again and again. Those who have not
seen Him listen with beating hearts and wistful
eyes. Oh that they, too, might look upon Him risen
from the dead !
See ! See ! There in His wonted place — with
radiant wounds in hands, and feet, and side — there
with the smile they know so well — He stands. He
looks with love upon them all. And hark ! He
speaks : " Peace be to you. It is I, fear not."
To us, too, He cornes at Benediction, when it is
late. Dear evening visit of our Lord, how did our
forefathers get on without it? How we should miss
it now ! Is it like His coming to the little flock in
Jerusalem gathered together within closed doors for
fear of their enemies ? Or like His visits to the sick
and the sad when He was on earth ? Or does it
recall John's vision of " One like to the Son of Man
in the midst of the golden candlesticks ? " Or the
eternal Benediction, where the Blessed with their
harps and golden vials full of odours fall down before
the Lamb and sing with a loud voice : " The Lamb
that was slain is worthy to receive power, and
divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and
THE RESURRECTION 17:3
glory, and benediction. To Him that sittoth on the
throne, and to the Lamb benediction, and honour,
and glory, and power for ever and ever. Amen"r
(A])oc. 5.)
Perhaps it is like all these. There is the stealing
away at nightfall from those who believe not in the
Divine Presence amongst us: the gathering round
the empty place where He is wont to stand : the
hush . . . and then the sudden Coming, and
the burst of joy and triumph. " The disciples were
glad when they saw the Lord." And so are we.
He stands "in the midst." Of whom? Of His
servants, little and great — the poor, the outcast, the
heavy laden, the little children, as in the days of
His life on earth. And now as then they bring to
Him all manner of troubles, doubts, plans, diffi
culties, needs of every sort. Some come to Him
for the souls confided to them ; some for their own.
Some to have their joy sanctified by II is blessing:
others to lay down their burden awhile at His feet.
Some few there are who come to Him, not for His
promised refreshment, but for Himself, to pour out
their souls before Him in praise and thanksgiving,
in sympathy, in reparation, in love.
" When it was late and the disciples were
gathered together, Jesus came and stood in the
midst, and said to them : 'Peace be to you.'"
Peace is His word to e;ich and to all. Peace, His
peace, in the midst of the world's rush and excite
ment and unrest: in the midst of it> business, and
its gaieties, its dangers and its care*.
174 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
Peace amid the storm of persecution, the heart-
sinking at failure, the monotony of well-doing, and
watching and waiting for better things.
Peace in the harder trials of life, the coldness of
the nearest, the peril of the dearest.
Peace in the struggle with self — sharp, daily, un
relenting. In the struggle with God Himself ; in
the weary search for Him who hides ; in the separa
tion from Him who seems to have forsaken.
Peace is His word to us all. Peace, like the rays
of His monstrance, radiates from Him on every
side. How could it be otherwise when He Himself
is in our midst. " It is I, fear not. It is I Myself.
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you ;
not as the world giveth do I give unto you. Let not
your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid (John
14). If the world hates you, know that it hath
hated Me before you. . . . The servant is not
greater than his Master (John 15). In the world
you shall have distress, but have confidence, I have
overcome the world. . . . You will indeed have
sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart
shall rejoice, and your joy no man shall take from
you " (John 16).
We shall see Him " in Patria " when time shall
be no more . . . and the mystery of God shall
be finished (Apoc. 10), And I heard a great voice
from the throne saying : Behold the tabernacle of
God with men, and He will dwell with them. And
they shall be His people ; and God Himself with
them shall be their God " (Apoc. 21).
THE RESURRECTION 175
"Come up higher," will be the sweet invitation
to the eternal Benediction, where is "the voice of
harpers harping- on their harps (Apoc. 14) : where
the Temple is filled with smoke from the Majesty of
God (Apoc. 15): where the great multitude which
no man can number, of all nations and tribes, and
peoples and tongues, stand before the throne in sight
of the Lamb, and cry with a loud voice : " Salvation
to our God who sitteth upon the throne and to the
Lamb . . . Amen. Benediction, and glory,
and wisdom, and thanksgiving, honour, and power
and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen "
(Apoc. 7).
Shall we think, then, amid that glory and that
peace, of the days when we gathered round the
little throne on earth, " the tabernacle of God with
men,'' to behold "the Mystery of God," to wait for
His coming in the midst ol us, and to hear Him say :
" Peace be to von " ?
I am risen and am still with thee. Ps. cxxxviii.
Broken by our unkindness, Heart of Chri>t.
Truest of friends,
Thou speedest back to us, as though 'twere Thine
To make amends.
To comfort and to gladden, all Thy task,
Upbraiding not;
All wronirs, all memories save tho^e of love
Past and forgot.
176 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
VII.— See My hands and feet, that it is I Myself; handle
and see.— Luke xxiv.
When all was over on Friday afternoon, and the
body of their Victim lay lifeless and cold in the grave,
the priests, fearful of His assurance that He would
rise from the dead the third day, " made the sepulchre
sure, sealing the stone, and setting guards."
But " He that dwelleth in Heaven shall laugh at
them : and the Lord shall deride them " (Ps. 2).
Very early on the first day of the week, while it
was yet dark, our Lord rose again. His sacred body,
united once more to the Soul, rose glorious and im
mortal, every vestige of its humiliation gone. He
rose in stillness and in solitude : only legions of ador
ing angels, and perhaps the holy souls from Limbo,
to witness His Resurrection. His hour of triumph
had come. The most glorious victory earth has ever
seen was His, a victory that by proving His Divinity
beyond the possibility of cavil, was to become the
central point of the Church's faith, so that the preach
ing of the Gospel, was to be called the preaching of
the Resurrection. Yet He would have no human eye
as witness, no stir in the tomb, nothing to give notice
by the faintest sign of what had passed within.
How differently we should have arranged His
triumph ! There were a million and a half or two
millions of His people in Jerusalem. He might,
had he so willed, have roused them from slumber by
a terrific earthquake, which, if it did not shake the
city into ruins, would have hurried them panic-
THE RESURRECTION 177
stricken out of thoir dwellings into the surrounding
valleys. Then, in the sight of King Herod, and the
Governor, and priests, and Pharisees, of the vast
multitude out of every nation under I leaven, He
might have risen in glory from the tomb.
His thoughts are not our thoughts. The meek
ness and humility which had marked His earthly
life seemed to cling to Him still. It was not Himself
but His Angel who so terrified the guards that they
became as dead men. He went quietly hither and
thither among His friends, attractive and loveablc as
of old, but with a new tenderness, almost playful
ness of manner now that the burden which had lain
on His Heart tor three and thirty years was lifted
from Him. We see Him coming, and hiding, and
calling them by their name, as when He went to
the Sepulchre in search of Magdalen. lie veal in <:
Himself unexpectedly in the inn at Kmmaus, or in
the Upper Chamber on Mount Sion ; or usini: His
Omnipotence to provide breakfast for the disciples
on the seashore of Tiberias. We find Him walking
with them, eating with them, irivinir Himself to be
handled by them, making it His study to convince
them that He was in verv deed the Master they had
loved and followed in the days gone bv. The natural
questioning of their hearts would be: " Is it in truth
the Lord Himself:' If it is He, is He changed
towards us by our miserable falling awav from Him 'r
Is the same familiar intercourse to be allowed us as
before, the same confidence, the same love I"" "Jesus
knew that they had a mind to ask Him" these vital
N
178 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
questions, and He anticipates them. "Peace be
to you. It is I, fear not. See that it is I Myself.
Handle Me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and
bones as you see Me to have. And when He had
said this He showed them His hands and His feet"
(Luke 24).
The Resurrection restores Him to them the same
as before, if any thing, more tender, because there
was more to overlook, more need to reassure. What
a delight it is to see Him come back to us Himself,
unchanged, unchilled by the touch of death, un-
severed from the sympathies of earth by the glorious
state on which He has entered ; no whit less human
because now the Divinity displays itself — " Jesus
yesterday, to-day, and the same for ever" (Heb. 13).
There are hearts so wrung with anguish by the
leave-taking at the grave, that they refuse to believe
in the survival of earth's dear ties beyond. They
are not heartbroken because they deny themselves
this consolation : but because they are heartbroken
they will not accept it. To such as these our Lord
offers His Sacred Human Heart after the Resurrec
tion for their instruction and comfort. Wha.t loving
eagerness He shows to be with His " brethren " once
again. He abridges as far as possible the three days
of separation. He anticipates the appointed meeting
in Galilee by appearing six times at least on the very
day of His Resurrection. He hastens from one to
another of His friends. The thought uppermost in
His mind seems to be the happiness His new and
glorious life will bring to those He loves. His Resur-
THE RESURRECTION 179
roction is not the pledge only, it is tho prototype of
ours: " Tl hath noi yet appeared what we shall bo.
But we know that we shall be like to Him " (I. John
3). Does not this suffice to satisfy and more than
satisfy every desire ? We shall be like Him. In
retaining all that was noble and beautiful of ihe affec
tions of earth ; in the intensified because purified love
of those bound to us by the ties of kindred and friend
ship; in sympathy with them closer and tenderer
than any we know now — we shall be like Him.
"We may lift up our lightened hearts, then, to those
who have prone before us " with the sign of faith and
rest in the sleep of peace," remembering they are
ours still and are to be restored to us one day as
mirs. "'Ihe (iod of all consolation" will give back to
us those from whom we were parted for a time, dearer
beyond measure for the parting, and for the new
grace and beauty that have blossomed out in the sun
shine of their eternal life. They will meet us at the
gates of Heaven and we shall know them at once as
our own. No need for them to say as they greet us
with loving welcome: " See that it is 1 myself."
And God shall wipe away tears from all eyes: and
death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying,
nor sorrow shall be any more, for the former things
are passed away. — Apoc. xxi.
VIII. — Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and
so to enter into His glory? — Luke xxiv.
See our Lord rising triumphant from the grave on
Easter Day. See those sacred members radiant
180 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
with the glory of their new life. Each has gone
through its Passion and borne its share, suffering in
its appointed place, for the appointed time, patiently,
perseveringly, to the end. Each has been in full
sympathy with the Head. Fittingly, then, does
each share in the glory that now from that glorious
Head flows down upon all.
Thus was it with the members of His mystical
body who had stood round the Cross. The pain of
each had been foreseen, measured out, appointed
from eternity. And so was the joy that from theii
Head irradiated all, not gladdening all alike, but
in proportion to the sufferings and dispositions of
each. There was the joy of the holy women, the
joy of Magdalen, the Mother's joy, like her love,
immeasurably outstripping all.
Thus will it be with each and every one of His
members unto the end. Therefore St. Peter bids
us rejoice when we suffer with Christ " that when
His glory shall be revealed we may also be glad with
exceeding joy" (I. Peter 4). To be with Jesus of
Nazareth costs for a little while. But it is to be
our joy throughout eternity. To all who are faithful
to Him here He says as to His dear apostles : " You
now indeed have sorrow, but I will see you again
and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man
shall take from you " (John 16).
The Divine Child made His offering in the Temple
with the knowledge that it would be accepted to the
full. When the time came for Him to redeem the
pledge He had given us, He was ready. " I do not
resist : I have not gone back " (Isaias 50). And
THE RESURRECTION 181
when His chalice had boon drained to the dregs,
and Easter morning had dawned, and He was striv
ing on that Sabbath day's walk to instruct and cheer
two of His disciples to whom the Passion had been
a scandal, He said simply: "Ought not Christ to
have suffered these things ?" Tie was but fulfilling
His engagement. Was it not to be expected of
Christ that He would have a suffering life and a
death of shame ?
We can trust our Lord thoroughly. We can
always depend on Him. What lie undertakes He
will carry through. What lie promises He will
fulfil. Can the same be said of me? Am 1 as
good as my word? I have undertaken to follow
Him, bearing my cross. When the cross comes to
rne in my daily life, can 1 say with Him : " 1 do
not resist: I have not gone back. Ought not I to
suffer these things " ?
From first to last ihror^-hnut the histnrv of the
elect the law holds good — death the road to resurrec
tion and eternal life, and the only road. Are Enoch
and Elias at least to be exempt? We might think
so when we read of the stupendous powers given to
them in the days of their prophecy: "I will give
unto My two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a
thousand two hundred sixty days . . . And if
any man will hurt them, fire shall come out of their
mouths, and shall devour their enemies. And if
any man will hurt them, in this manner must he bo
slain. These have power to shut heaven
and they have power over waters to turn them into
blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues as
182 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
often as they will" (Apoc. 11). How, then, shall
these witness to the Lamb that was slain ? How
shall these servants be as their Master?
" And when they shall have finished their testi
mony, the beast that asceiideth out of the abyss,
shall make war against them, and shall overcome
them and kill them. And their bodies shall lie in
the streets of the great city where their Lord also
was crucified . . . for three days and a half.
And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over
them and maive merry . . . And after three
days and a half, the spirit of life from God entered
into them. And they stood upon their feet, and
great fear fell upon them that saw them . . .
And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their
enemies saw them " (Id.).
"As you are partakers of the sufferings of Christ,
so shall you be also of the consolation " (II. Cor. 1).
" If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him " (II.
Tim. 2). Such is the universal law of Christ's
kingdom. Have I any wish but to fulfil it, when,
and how, and in the measure appointed for me?
IX. — Christ is risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that
sleep.— i Cor. xv.
(1) God hath both raised up the Lord, and will
raise up us also by His power (I. Cor. 6).
(2) Know you not that your bodies are the mem
bers of Christ? Glorify and bear God in your body
(id).
(3) We look for that life which God will give to
THE RESURRECTION 183
those that never change their faith from Ilim
(Tobias 2).
(4) Wo are now the sons of God ; and it hath
not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that
when He shall appear we shall be like to Him,
because we shall see Him as lie is (I. John 3).
(5) If we believe that Jesus died and rose again,
even so them who have slept through Jesus will
God bring with Him (Thess. 4).
((») Wherefore expect Me, saith the Lord in the
day of My Resurrection that is to come. ... In
that day thou shalt not be ashamed For all thy doings
wherein thou hast transgressed against Me. . .
The Lord will rejoice over thee with gladness, He
will be silent in His love, He will be joyful over
thee in praise (Sophon. 3).
(7) In that day you shall see the difference between
the just and the wicked : between him that serveth
God, and him that serveth Him not (Malach. 3).
(cS) Fight the good fight of faith; lay hold on
eternal life whereunto thou art called (I. Tim. 6).
(9) Keep yourselves in the love of God (Jude 1).
And wait for His Son from Heaven, whom. He raised
from the dead, Jesus wrho hath delivered us from the
wrath to come (I. Thess. 1).
(10) I know that my Kedeemer liveth, and in the
last day I shall rise out of the earth. And 1 shall
be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I
shall see my God. Whom 1 myself shall see, and
mv eves shall behold, and not another: this my
hope is laid up in my bosom (Job 19).
THE ASCENSION
I. — Sing ye to God, sing a psalm to His name : make a way
for Him who ascendeth upon the west : the Lord is His
name. — Ps. Ixvii.
At length He appeared to the Eleven as they were
at table : and He upbraided them with their in
credulity and hardness of heart, because they did
not believe them who had seen Him after He was
risen again.
And He led them out as far as Bethania. And
lifting up His hands He blessed them. And it came
to pass whilst He blessed them He departed from
them ; and while they looked on He was raised up,
and a cloud received Him out of their sight; and
He was carried up to heaven, and sitteth on the right
hand of God.
And while they were beholding Him going up to
heaven, behold two men stood by them in white
garments, who also said : Ye men of Galilee, why
stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus who
is taken up from you into heaven shall so come as
you have seen Him going into heaven.
And they, adoring, went back into Jerusalem with
THE ASCENSION 185
groat joy, from the mount which is called Olivet.
(Luke 24; Mark 1G; Acts 1.)
Sec the disciples standing round our Lord on
Olivet. With them Ills Mother and the faithful
women. How absorbed are all in their contempla
tion of Him ! How utterly forgotten is the earth
and all it contains!
Feel the freshness of the breeze up on this height.
Taste the peace and happiness of the little group.
The joy of belonging to our Lord; of being among
His friends; of having made sacrifices for Him.
Admire the unselfish love that makes their faces
so bright, their hearts so happy as they come down
the Mount — alone.
II.— Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Thy
glory above all the earth. — Ps. Ivi.
The forty (lavs are over. What days they have
been for the disciples ! Any time they might expect
a visit from their Master. In His absence they
longed for Him. When lie came, they feasted their
eyes upon His glorious beauty, and hung upon His
lips, and poured out their souls at His feet ! Before
His Passion He had said to them : " I have many
things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now."
During the forty days lie has said these many
things. He has been speaking to them of the King
dom of God, that spiritual Kingdom of which they
are to be under Him the founders, and which by their
labours they are to extend to the ends of the earth
186 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
Now that the Eesurrection has set the seal of the
Divinity on His mission and His words, and solidly
established their faith and trust in Him, they can
bear to hear of the great things they are to suffer
for His Name's sake. How sweet has been the inter
course between the Master and the disciples during
these blessed days.
And now the last of them, Thursday, has come.
The Eleven are at table when He appears to them.
There is something very homely and tender in His
choosing this time for coming into their midst. As
if He would make up to them for the sadness of that
Last Supper when He had to break to them that He
was going away. To what lengths His condescen
sion goes on this last morning on earth of His glorious
and immortal life. We are expressly told that He ate
with them. It is perhaps conceivable that He should
thus humble Himself at His first appearance on
Easter Day, when " they being troubled and
affrighted supposed that they saw a spirit." But,
after forty days, when " by many proofs " the}* have
been convinced that He who came in and went out
amongst them was in very deed their Lord and
Master — what need of such loving familiarity now !
" And He upbraided them with their incredulity
and hardness of heart because they did not believe
them who had seen Him after He was risen again."
How His Sacred Heart resented the want of faith !
And they knew it. When, in that early morning, He
provided their breakfast on the seashore, and " com-
eth and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish
THE ASCENSION 187
ii like manner, none of thorn who wore at meat durst
:isk Him: 'Who art Thou?' knowing that it was
(he Lord " (John 1J1).
" Durst "—for the only fault He could bring Trim-
self to rebuke in those glad days was doubt, fear,
slowness of heart to recognise Him as the same He
had ever boon to them. Was there not everything
to reassure them? The well-known voice and saluta
tion, the dear familiar words in which lie was wont
to calm their fears, I he same Divine couHesy, the
same irracious condescension, so natural, so sweet,
that the condescension scarcely appeared, the human
affeotionateness and sympathy with their joys and
pains thai had marked all His dealings with
them during the three years of intimate com
panionship — all this they found again, height
ened by an indescribable charm after the
Resurrection. It was the recognition of the old
ways, and tones, and actions, as He chid, and taught,
and comforted, and walked, and ate with them, that
brought home at last to their slow hearts that it was
in very truth Jesus Christ, yesterday, and to-day, and
the same for ever.
Thus Tie showed Himself to them in the last visit.
And eating with them He commanded them that they
should not depart from Jerusalem, but should wait
for the promise of the Father, " which you have
heard," saith He, "by My mouth."
" And lie led them out as far :>v 1 >ethania," the part
of Olivet that went by this name.
See them leaving the Supper Room together.
188 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
When last they had gone thence with Him, it was to
witness the beginning of His Passion under the olive
trees. Now, along the same road, they go to be spec
tators of His triumph. Through the crowded streets
they follow their Master, visible to themselves alone.
Across Kedron, and past the Garden of Gethsemane.
See Him, as He begins to ascend Olivet, looking down
into the Garden where He lay in agony, sorrowful
even unto death. He slackens His pace as the sum
mit of the Mount is reached, as if Jothe to leave the
earth and the little flock to whom He is all
in all. See Him speaking tenderly, now to one
now to another — a last word to Magdalen, to John,
to Peter, to His Mother. How they all press round
Him, as if they feel they are about to lose Him.
Look reverently on Him as He stands now on the
mountain brow. The fresh breeze stirs His raiment
and His hair. He is gazing into the distance. His
thoughts seem far away. Beneath Him lie the scenes
of His life on earth. To the north is Nazareth,
where, when all things were in quiet silence, and
night was in the midst of her course, He came to
Mary. There are tears of human feeling in His eyes
as He thinks of His home, and of the little shop up
the village street where He worked those many years
by Joseph's side. To the south is Bethlehem where
He came unto His own and His own received Him
not. South-west Egypt, recalling memories of His
infancy and boyhood. How long He stands there,
still and silent, looking round. The hillsides, the
corn fields, the desert places, the crowded streets, the
THE ASCENSION 189
quiet lanes, where He went about doing pood, teach
ing, healing, comforting — His Heart yearns over
them all.
At his feet is the Garden where lie prayed that
His chalice might pass from Him ; where He accepted
the Father's AVill. Yonder are the pillar and the
guard room where in His innocent flesh He satisfied
for the sins of men. Trending westward, the road to
Calvary, where lie became the pattern of the sulVer-
ing and the heavy laden, to the end of time. And
there, outside the walls rose the hard deathbed
where He taught us how to die.
Our Lord looks over the scenes of His life on
earth and sees that everywhere He has perfectly ful
filled the Father's Will. " 1 have glorified Thee
on the earth. I have finished the work Thou gavest
Me to do. And now glorify Thou Me, 0 Father,
with the glory which I had, before the world was,
with Thee " (John 17).
His eyes turn again to His disciples. Lifting up
His hands He blesses them, and rises into the air.
He rises slowly. Up into the blue heavens He
mounts, till a cloud receives Him out of their sight.
See them gazing after Him. Long, long after
the cloud has sailed away, and all trace of Him has
gone, they stand there motionless. " He was
carried up to heaven, and sitteth on the right hand
of God.1' And He has carried thither with Him
all their interests, and affections, their very life.
How can they bring down their gaze to earth again •
190 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
Suddenly two men stand by them in white gar
ments, who say : " Ye men of Galilee, why stand you
looking up to heaven ? This Jesus who is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come as you have
seen Him going into Heaven."
" Why stand you looking up to heaven ? " 0
Angels, what a question ! Where should they look
but into that heaven whither He has gone ? What
comfort is left for them here ? Dark and lonely
earth will be to them now. And yet they are not
left without consolation. It is to be found in four
things. In the glory of their Lord who has reached
the end of His painful course and is now seated at
the right hand of God. In the promise of His
return. In the Comforter He will send them. In
the work they are to do for Him. The disciples
open their hearts to this comfort. " They adoring
went back into Jerusalem with great joy," we are
told. Not the Mother only, from whom we expect
the highest heroism of generosity, but those also
who gathered round her as they went down the
Mount together. Looking into her face, they
caught her spirit of unselfishness, her joy in His
glory, her zeal for the souls He came to save. They
felt they must keep near her to sustain their souls
on hers. With her they re-crossed Kedron, and
threaded their way through the streets back to the
Supper Boom, there ie await the coming of the
Paraclete.
THE ASCENSION 191
God is ascended with jubilee, and the Lord with the sound
of trumpet— Ps. xlvi.
Rise, King of Glory, rise
fn to Thy Throne !
No power, no praise, no prize,
But is Thine own.
And we are Thine, Thy race,
Thy brethren we ;
Lord, in Thy dwelling-place
We, too, must lie !
III.— While they looked on He was carried up to heaven and
sitteth on the right hand of God. -Acts i, Luke xxiv,
Mark xvi.
Let U8 follow our Lord in thought from the
moment when the cloud hides Him from the sight
of the disciples. The day will conie when we shall
follow II im in body and soul even as we see Him
going into heaven.
Look around. Myriads of Angels, those elder sons
of God, are flocking earthward, eager to hail as Kin<r,
Him who has repaired their ranks. And, pressing
close in His train, nearer to Him even than His
Angels, is a great multitude that no man con Id
number — souls from Limbo and from Purgatory, the
just made perfect, from Adam and Eve, and
Abraham and David, to St. Joseph, and the good
thief.
See the happy commingling for the first time of
angelic and human spirits; how affectionately the
192 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
Angels associate with, those who are " a little lower "
only than themselves by reason of their closer rela
tionship with Him who is Head of all, the First-
Born among many brethren.
Watch the grand procession as it sweeps onward
to the eternal gates. Hear the sounds of praise and
congratulation on every side. ' The chariot of
God is attended by ten thousand, thousands of them
that rejoice. The Lord is among them in the holy
place. Ascending on high, Thou hast led captivity
captive " (Ps. 67).
" Sing ye to God, ye kingdoms of the earth, sing
ye to the Lord. Sing ye to God who mounteth
above the heaven of heavens to the east.
His magnificence and His power is in the clouds "
(Id.).
Hear the summons to the warders of the heavenly
City ; " Lift up your gates, 0 ye princes, and be ye
lifted up, 0 eternal gates; and the King of Glory
shall enter in.
"Who is this King of Glory?
" The Lord who is strong and mighty ; the Lord
mighty in battle " (Ps. 24).
Kneel on the threshold of heaven as He enters
with His train. Stoop down and kiss " the place of
His feet." Beg Him to carry before the throne of
God all your desires and affections. And to grant
you now such grace, that when on the Last great
Day all heaven shall pour out to the Judgment, and
He shall return with the elect, you may be one of
His suite.
THE ASCENSION 19:)
0 my Lord, remember me now that Thou art enter
ing Thy Kingdom. Among its millions, remember
me. Among its many mansions find a little place
for me, that where Thou art I may be with Thee
and see Thy glory. Give me grace to rule my life
on Thine, that Thou mayst not be ashamed to
acknowledge me for one of Thy members when Thou
shalt come in the majesty of Thy Father and of the
holy Angels.
IV.— " I ascend to My Father and to your Father."— John xx.
How dear to Thee, 0 Lord, is Thy office as Head
of our race ! How Thou dost love to draw us into
close companionship with Thee, to communicate to
us all that is communicable in the privileges of son-
ship, to identify our interests with Thine!
My Father and your Father. He, the Elder
Brother, bids us put 011 His likeness; clothe our
selves with His merits; offer the acceptable gifts
He places in our hands, that we may win the blessing
which is the birthright of the First-Born.
My Father and your Father. The adopted
children are led up to our common Father by the
Eternal Son for the embrace which is the right of
every child.
My Father and your Father. AVe, the prodigal
children are reconciled to the Father we have
abandoned and outraged, by Him who does always
the things that please Him.
O
194 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
V.— O clap your hands, all ye nations, shout unto God with
the voice of joy.— Ps. xlvi.
Yes, all ye nations, for all are His redeemed, bought
with a great price. Clap your hands, shout for joy;
our Redeemer having risen from the dead dieth now
no more ; pain and sorrow shall no more come near
Him.
It is all over, dear Lord, all over. No more tor
ture for Thy sacred body ; no more anguish for Thy
generous Soul. Beneath the olive trees but forty
days ago Thou didst accept Thy cruel Passion : " The
chalice which My Father hath given Me, shall I not
drink it? " Now, on Olivet again, ascending in
glory to the right hand of the Father, the cry of Thy
Heart in Its overflowing gladness is : ik My chalice
which inebriateth, how goodly is it! " (Ps. 22).
Past for ever is that baptism with which Thou
hadst to be baptized. Thou art no more straitened,
for now it is accomplished. " The scourge shall not
come nigh Thy dwelling^ (Ps. 90). Thine enemies
shall rage and devise vain things . . . and Thou
0 Lord, dwelling in heaven, shalt laugh at them
(Ps. 2). Past is all the humiliation and the woe Thy
Incarnation involved. But not past, never to be past,
are its blessed fruits. Never to be past Thy triumph
as Conqueror over sin and hell. Never to be past
the song of praise that goes up to Thee from Thine
elect. Never past Thy work of intercession for us at
the right hand of the Father — the pleading of Thy
Wounds, the light, and strength, and consolation
THE ASCENSION 195
that flow from thorn to the uttermost, parts of the
earth.
And never to be past, nay rather to hojrin from
this hour, my personal return to Thee tor the redemp
tion Thou hast brought- a redemption as much for
mo as if it had been wrought for me alone. Nay, is
it not more to me a thousand times, than if it had
profited no other? Is it not more to me that all
whom I love, that this dear human family, every
member of it, was under those outstretched arms on
Calvary and drawn into their embrace?
0 clap your hands, all ye nations, shout unto God
with the voice of joy. And you, holy and happy
ones, who have secured for ever the fruits of that
Redemption, who have washed your robes and made
them white in the Ulood of the Lamb, praise Him
for us till we join you and unite our voices with
yours. Even here in this vale of tears your song of
praise reaches us, that we may echo it however
faintly: k* Thou art worthy, (J Lord our God, to
receive glory, and honour, and power" (Apoc. 4)
. . because Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed
us to God in Thy Blood, out of every tribe, and
tongue, and people, and nation. The Lamb that was
slain is worthy to receive power, and divinity, and
wisdom, and strength, and honour and glory, and
benediction (Apoc. 0). \Ve give Thee thanks, ()
Lord God Almighty, who art, and who wast, and who
art to come; because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy
great power, and Thou hast reigned (Apoc. 11).
196 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
VI.— While they looked on He was carried up, and a cloud
received Him out of their sight.— Acts i.
Can we imagine a way of withdrawing His pre
sence from this world better fitted to draw their hearts
after Him ? He might have sent an Angel to say He
had ascended, as one was sent to say He was risen.
He might have met them in the Supper Koom and
there made them His farewell. But to gather them
round Him and lead them up to a peak of earth, and
thence to rise slowly above their heads, letting their
eyes follow Him till the cloud received Him out
of their sight — was not this to attract their hearts
vehemently whither He had gone ! Was it not to
link together Heaven and earth, in a union that shall
never again be broken ! Earth stood on tiptoe to
lift Him up : Heaven stooped to receive Him.
What a life of paradoxes is the life of the Word
made Flesh ! God become man ; the Creator to have
a created nature ; the Almighty to be helpless and
weak ; the All Wise to learn ; the All Perfect to in
crease in grace before God and man ; Life to die ;
the most faithful of friends to leave us, and leaving,
to remain with us all days !
And here on Olivet, drawing His disciples after
Him in heart and desire ; yet sending them back into
Jerusalem, to long absence from Him, to struggle
and persecution, labours and death — " with great
joy-"
In the Eucharist and the Paraclete we might find
an explanation of the joy. But by another paradox.
THE ASCENSION 197
These gentle forces were to sustain, not to satisfy.
They were to maintain for ever in iheir hearts and in
the hearts of His disciples to the end of time, the
longing desire to see fare to fare Him who, beneath
His veils, is the source of all their desires ; the pining
for that "abiding City" which "the Spirit Himself
asketh for us with unspeakable groan ings" (Rom.
8).
VII. — If you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are
above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.
Mind the things that are above, not the things that are
upon the earth.— Coloss. iii.
See the disciples wending their way towards the
Mount of Olives: He in their midst, visible to them,
not to His enemies. Xote how He is literally the one
thought, the one love of them all. How even* aim,
desire, affection, centres in Him. How He is the
bond of union among- so many of different ranks,
callings, characters. See the radiant peace on every
face. Look into each heart and see how joy and con
fidence reign supreme ; how the world with its
pleasures and honours is not so much despised as
utterly ignored by these men of lowly station.
Why? Because hem? risen with Christ, they seek
the things that are above, whither their Lord is
ascending to sit at the right hand of God. The love
of Christ has drawn them out and freed them from
the absorbing love of self. His views, His Will, His
service, have taken the place of personal considera
tions. How proud they are of Him. And of being
198 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
His. How they look to Him, lean upon Him, trust
to Him the future so lowering, so unprovided for.
What matter if life is to be full of peril and pain, if
goods, home, friends, strength, life itself, have to be
sacrificed for Him ! He will be with them through
it all. He will make up to them for all. He will
be ready to receive them when their work for Him
is done. In a little while they will be with Him in
His Kingdom. Oh that that hour were come now !
But six weeks ago all His acquaintance and the
women that had followed Him from Galilee, stood
afar off beholding what seemed to be the end of all
their hopes. It was the eve of the Pasch. The re
joicings of the morrow were mockery and misery to
them. On the first day of the week they rose from
troubled sleep to face life again, their hearts weighted
with a sorrow beyond the power of heaven or earth
to lighten. So it seemed. But the next day when
they rose — if indeed there was rest for any of them
that night that followed the Resurrection — and the
next day, and the next, and as day succeeded
day — what a change ! If earth looked dark
now, it was because the light of His face
had dulled all else to them. No loss could
eadden them : no persecution shake them ; nothing
could fetter the freedom or quench the joy of hearts
to which their risen Lord was all in all.
Calvary had crushed them to the earth : it had not
raised them to heaven. Unless mind and heart open
to the srrace that comes with a great sorrow, this will
not worV detachment — a hopeless, bitter disgust of
THE ASCENSION
life, perhaps, but this is not detachment. Detach
ment is a bright grace, that frees the soul
from earthly ties, not to lenve it unsup
ported and unsatisfied, but to bear it swiftly
to God. It does not kill or blunt the affections, but
purifies and intensifies them that they may cleave
with all their strength to the Sovereign Good, the
All-sufHcino; God. Thus the work, begun by sorrow,
must be perfected by hope and love. The Master sun
must follow upon the three4 hours of darkness, as it
did for our Lord's first disciples. Having Him, they
needed nothing beside. Mveii those who had not yet
seen Him were happy in the thought of His happiness
and in the promise that they should see Him soon.
And when the cloud on ( Hivet had taken Him from
their sight, they were joyful still. We are told ex
pressly that they went back into Jerusalem "with
irreat"joy." "And they were always in the Temple
praising and blessing God." The sensible loss His
Ascension had brought to them was forgotten in their
exultation at His triumph. And He was with them
yet, beneath the veils. Day and night they could go
to Him for light, for strength, for every needtul
grace. The trials of earth fell lightly on hearts
that were in Heaven with their Treasure. Their con
versation, their interests were there. They were
risen with Christ and sought "the things that are
above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of
God."
We, too, are His disciples — why should it not be
thus with us?
200 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
VIII.— This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall
so come as you have seen Him going into heaven. — Acts i.
What would her Child be like? was Mary's con
stant thought during the time of her Expectation
before His birth. How would He look into her face ?
How would she dare to look on Him, nurse Him,
swathe Him, fold Him in her arms ? Would she be
dazzled and overpowered by the glory streaming
from Him? Thus the Greek liturgy makes her
muse and question. And the answer is : " Wait,
Blessed Mother, wait."
With greater reason would she ponder thus in her
heart during the forty hours of her second Expecta
tion, when she was awaiting her Son's return to her
from the grave, His Birthday to a new and immortal
life. She knew that the Divinity, hitherto con
cealed, was now to manifest Itself. How could she
dare to look upon Him in His glory ?
We, too, are expecting the Coming of Christ.
We expect Him daily in His inspirations and
secret visits to our souls.
We expect His descent on to the altar in the one,
unending Sacrifice.
We expect Him in Holy Communion, veiled in
the Host, as shrouded in human flesh at Bethlehem.
We expect Him at the General Judgment on the
Last Day, when He will come in His majesty amid
the clouds of heaven, and every eye shall see Him.
We expect Him at the Particular Judgment iu
THE ASCENSION 201
the very moment of death. Life from first to last
is our expectation of this dread coming to us as
Judge. How often does it find us echoing our
Mother's questioning: "When will He come to me'?
And how ? "
When He lias not told me. I have to he always
watching, always listening for the sound of His
feet. "Watch," He says to me, " for you know not
when the Lord of the house cometh, at even, or at
midnight, or at cock-crowing or in the morning;
le>t coming on a sudden He find you sleeping. And
what. I say to you 1 say to all : Watch " (Mark l-\).
IIoic He will come depends on myself. Lord,
give me grace to live so faithful a child of holy
Church, that, her prayer for me may he heard in
the hour when, my trembling soul shall go forth
from the body into the house of its eternity :
" As thy soul goeth forth from the body, may the
bright company of Angels meet thee ; may the
judicial senate of Apostles greet thee; may the
triumphant army of white-robed Martyrs come out
to welcome thee ; may the band of glowing Con
fessors, crowned with lilies, encircle thee ; may the
•choir of Virgins, singing jubilees, receive thee
'mild and festive may the aspect of Jesus Christ
appear to thee.''
Meantime, we, too, like the Blessed Mother, are
waiting. A servant of God summed up her life in
the words: "I believe; I hope; 1 wait." \Vo
wait for Him, and work while we wait; all our
work directed to Him, done for Him, ready to be
left the moment He calls.
202 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
Our Lord, too, is waiting and expecting. He is
standing at the open door of Heaven watching and
listening for our coming. The songs of praise and
jubilee within do not absorb Him. He looks down
to earth ; follows us hither and thither ; sympathises
with us in every trial and care. Wishes sometimes
we had a little more desire to be with Him in the
Home He is preparing for us. That our hearts
would catch fire by contact with His. That we
could be, not resigned only to die, but filled with
desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. That
we would put more heart into the prayer He Himself
has placed on our lips : " Thy Kingdom come."
That our constant cry could be that of the Beloved
Disciple : " Come, Lord Jesus ! "
IX.— Who hath brought many children unto glory.— Heb. ii.
(1) In My Father's House there are many
mansions (John 14). I go to prepare a place for
you (Id). If I go to prepare a place for you, I will
come again and will take you to Myself that where
I am you also may be (Id.).
(2) Whither I go you know and the way you know
(id.).
(3) If you be risen with Christ seek the things
that are above (Coloss. 3).
(4) Mind the things that are above where Christ
is sitting at the right hand of God (Id.). When
Christ shall appear who is your life, then you also
shall appear with Him in glory (Id.).
THE ASCENSION 203
(5) Yet a little while and a very little while and
lie that is to come, will come, and will not delay
(iiob. 10).
(li) Behold, Tie cometh with the clouds, and every
eye shall see Him ( Apoc. I.).
(7) Behold, 1 come quickly, and My reward is
with Me to render to every man according to his
works (Apoc. "22}.
(8) Behold, I come quickly, hold fast thai which
thou hast, that no man take thy crown (Apoc. r'J).
(9) Be thou faithful unto death, and I will ^ive
thee tlit1 crown of life (Apoc. "2).
(10) Surely L come quickly (Apoc. ~2). Anieii.
I'ome, Lord Jesus (Id.).
THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST
I.— Thou gavest them Thy good Spirit to teach them.—
2 Esdras ix.
And they, adoring, went back into Jerusalem with,
great joy. And when they were come in, they went
up into an upper room, where abode Peter and John,
James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bar
tholomew and Matthew, James of Alpheus and Simon
Zelotes, and Jude the brother of James. All these
were persevering with one mind in prayer with the
women, and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and with His
brethren.
And they were always in the Temple, praising and
blessing God.
And when the days of Pentecost were accomplished,
they were all together in one place. And suddenly
there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind
coming, and it filled the whole house where they
were sitting. And there appeared to them parted
tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one
of them; and they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost. And they began to speak with divers tongues,
DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST 205
according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak
(Luke L>4; Acts 1).
Hear the sound of the mighty wind as it fills the
Cenacle where the disciples are assembled.
See the tongues of fire on the heads of all; the
peace of each radiant face. The Comforter has conic !
Feel the joy of each heart as il communes in silence
with Him who has more than satisfied its every need.
II. — If you being evil know how to give good gifts to youi
children, how much more will your Father from heaven
give the good Spirit to them that ask Him !— Luke xi.
How hopeless, seemingly, was the prospect before
the Eleven as they came slowly down from Olivet
after witnessing the Ascension of their Divine Mas
ter! What Presence could compensate for His
absence, or what power fit them for the work in front
of them? But the Resurrection had done its work.
It had taught them implicit reliance on their Mas
ter's word. He had promised them a Comforter able
to take His place and to prepare them for the work
they had to do. This was enough. They went up
into the Cenacle and began their preparation for
Him who was to be sent.
See them in that Toner Chamber hallowed by so
many mysteries; whore they had heard the first Mass
said bv Christ Himself, and been ordained priests to
do in commemoration of Him what He had done;
where they had received the power to forgive sins,
206 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
and the commission to teach all nations. Gathered
round Mary, the Mother of Jesus, as the Scripture is
careful to tell us, and Peter, now Yicar of Christ,
they begin the first novena, and enter on the first
Christian retreat. The details St. Luke gives us
enable us to see them in their solitude and follow
them in their work of preparation.
They " were all together in one place ... an
upper room," far from the distractions of the world.
They " were always " (i.e., very frequently) " in the
Temple, praising and blessing God." " Persevering
with one mind in prayer," under the headship of
Peter, and " with Mary the Mother of Jesus." By
union of mind and heart, prayer in common, sub
mission to authority, the motherly protection of
Mary — thus did the first disciples prepare for the
coming of the Holy Ghost. We must imitate them
if we want Him to visit us.
We notice that the chief part of their preparation
is prayer. And this, although the Holy Spirit has
been promised. The promises of God are condi
tional. They suppose that we do our part.
See them together in their retreat. Now in silent
prayer. Now listening to Peter's words. Now one
by one at Mary's side getting a word of instruc
tion or of counsel. And now, as the various hours
of prayer come round, betaking themselves to the
Temple for its services.
Watch our Lady on her return from Olivet re
tiring to a quiet corner of the Upper Room to be
alone with God. What marvellous meditations hers
DESCENT OF THE TIOEY GHOST 207
will be. Her heart is filled with overwhelming joy
in the Ascension. For she knows whence her Son
is ascending, and whither. " If you loved Ale you
would indeed be glad, because 1 go to the Father,"
He said to His disciples. In proportion to her love
was her gladness. She knew that of all the sons ot
men none had ever been or would ever be more
truly an exile on earth than her Divine Child. .None
could feel that exile so keenly. With all His con
descension to ns, ILis willing companionship with
us, His adoption of our wav>. His interest in our
labours and trials, He was alone. No one could
rightly appreciate Him. No one could approach
Him in sanctity, in hatred of sin, in weari
ness of soul at the wickedness and wavward-
ness of men. No other could look out over the
world from His level; measure with His standards;
fathom the depths of His love ; understand the ach
ing of His Heart; respond with anything like ade-
quateness to His ail'ection and His desires. She
herself, with all her nearness to Him and sympathy
with Him, which as His Virgin Mother was her
unshared privilege, remained at an infinite distance
from Him. The Father alone could understand the
Sacred Human Heart of His Son. Oh how glad
she was — because she loved Him so purely — that He
should go to the Father!
For her own sake, too, and for ours, she rejoiced.
Because in ascending to heaven, her Son has gone
before to show the way. Because He has taken the
first fruits of His Redemption with Him into His
208 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
Kingdom. Because we have now a Mediator ever
living to make intercession for us before the throne
of God.
She rejoiced, because the Ascension shows the
value of pain and sacrifice endured for God's glory.
With what joy she now recalls the hardships
suffered with her Divine Son in Bethlehem, Egypt,
Nazareth ; the disgrace that came upon her as His
Mother during the Passion, — along the way to Cal
vary, at the foot of the Cross. She sees that to have
been the companion of Christ in suffering is a higher
dignity, a happier lot than any glory earth can give,
that Heaven itself has nothing higher in which
to glory. " Thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth,"
is the mutual congratulation which the Blessed never
tire of repeating to one another. It is a memory
whose joy is ever fresh.
She prepared herself, then, for fresh labours and
troubles. A new path opened out before her as she
came down from Olivet, a path marked all along
by sacrifice, like her road hitherto. How dull life
must have looked to her when He was gone ! Yet
Mary's brave heart lived on and was content to live,
even though absent from her Son, even though her
heart was with her Treasure, so it was God's Will
and for His greater glory. If a saint was ready to
forego the immediate possession of God in heaven
for the privilege of still doing Him some service on
earth, how much more generously would Mary's
heart accept the work allotted her of cherishing
the orphan disciples, and helping them to spread
far and wide the fruit of Christ's Redemption.
D1-:S(T.XT OF THE HOLY GHOST 209
III. — "These were all persevering in prayer." Acts i.
And it came to pass that as lie was in a certain
place praying, when He ceased, one of His disciples
said to Him: "Lord, teach us to pray, as John also
taught his disciples" (Luke 11). It was the sight
of His prayer that woke within the hearts of the
Twelve the desire to pray, and to be taught how
to pray. Long before, in the solitude of the holv
Home at Xazareth, His first disciple had learned of
Him this science to be desired above all others.
What must prayer have been by His side, inspired
by Him, aided by Him, with Him as her model and
as the object of her prayer, with Him to hear and to
grant! Hy Him, with Him, in Him, were all her
petitions put up to the throne of (iml.
What reverence she learned of Him, what filial
confidence, what fervour! See her face as she says
the Our Father. Watch her at prayer in the
Temple and in the ( enacle during this novena of
preparation for the coming of the Holy (ihost. How-
does she pray? With exterior modest v, kneeling,
her hands joined; with application of mind, with
faith, with the certaintv <>i obtaining. The humblo
persistence of the Canaanite woman won from our
Lord the praise: "0 woman, great is thy laith!"
What was Mary's faith, what the fulness of hope.
the humility, the perseverance with which she
prayed ! What, therefore, will have been the fruit
of her prayer !
The Apostles and disciples strengthened their
P
210 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
supplications by union with. hers. They prayed
with an intimate sense of their need ; with an ardent
desire of receiving the promised Comforter; with
confidence that their prayer would be heard in God's
good time. They prayed. for gifts worthy of God;
for all that was requisite to carry out His designs.
If for temporal things, with freedom of heart., laying
their needs trustfully before their Father in Heaven,
casting their care on Him, relying on His Provi
dence, knowing that He who is infinitely wise and
good would give them all that was fitting, conform
ing themselves in all things spiritual and temporal
to His good pleasure.
What is my daily prayer like ? Does it in any
respect resemble that of Mary and the disciples ?
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners.
Pray for me that my prayer may become more like
thine. Get me light to see the needs of my soul that
I may know what to pray for. Hemind me in time
of temptation to turn at once to prayer. Teach me
to convert anxieties, plans, everything into prayer.
Help me to pray always with the reverence which is
the fruit of faith. And with the trust of a child ;
commending to my Father who is in heaven all that
concerns me and those who are dear to me ; leaving
to Him the time and the manner of His answer.
Get me a trust that long delays do not dishearten,
nor disappointments disturb. Get me perseverance
in prayer to the end.
DESCENT OF THE HOLY OHOST iMl
IV. — " Persevering with one mind." Acts i.
Now at last the disci ple< realised that th"ir
strength must be in union. Now they understood
their Master's prayer for thiMii : "that they rna\ he
one ' (.John 1.: ). The4 Scripture emphasises this.
"All were together . . . with the women, and
with the Mother of Jesus and with His brethren.
Peter rising up in (la4 midst of the Irtihn n, said ( now
tin1 number of persons together \\'as about one
hundred and twenty): Men, brethren." ete. Hence
forth we hear of no b; - amon^ t!ie Twelve.
Peter as Head directs, even in so momentous a
matter as the election of an apostle. The rot
acquiesce v.'ith unque>t Mining loyalty. "Loving
one another with the charity of brotherhood, with
honour preventing1 one another" (Rom. 1U). Kadi
has his special claim to consideration — Andrew, the
first chosen, "James, and Cephas, ami John, who
seemed to be pillurs '' ((ialat. LM, John, the Beloved,
"James, the l)rot her of the Lord" idalat. 1 .
Mary, the ol)|ei-t of prolOundest veneration to all,
is an example of submission to the Apostles. With
what reverence end a liability >he treats them.
^\'llat service-' slu1 renders the Ho\\ .-die en
courages them: solves (heir doubts \\ith [)atience
and charitv: consoles them as a mother; helps them
with fervent prayer. See how (hey brin<_T \« her
both joys and sorrows, in every necosity having
recourse to her, and never without con-, lation.
l)o I, like our Lady, >eek occasions of serving and
212 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
helping others ? Am I ready to bear defects ? Do I
brighten life to those around me; or the contrary?
No one left Mary without having gained : could
this be said of me? Is my conversation prudent,
charitable, careful of the good name of the absent?
Do I pray for others, for those especially who are
confided to me and for whom I shall have to give
an account?
V.— With Mary the Mother of Jesus.— Acts i.
One petition summed un all Mary's desires during
her preparation for Pentecost : k' Thy Kingdom
come ! " It was the cry of her Son's Heart from the
moment of the Incarnation. It is [ts cry still from
every Tabernacle, in every Mass, in the breast of
every communicant. And will be till we " shall see
the Kingdom of God coming in power" (Mark 8).
She prayed for herself, for the disciples, for the
whole human family confided to her. For herself.
We might have thought that further accessions of
grace would be scarcely possible to Mary, who at
fourteen, and before the overshadowing of the Holy
Ghost at Nazareth, was full of grace. But the last
word of the Spirit of God to us in Holy Scripture
shows us our mistake : '" He that is holy let him be
sanctified still" (Apoc. 22). The capacity of the soul
is indefinite. There is no point Avhere we can say:
Thus far and no farther.
We T7ho find it hard, perhaps, to pray with any
thing like ardour for purely spiritual gifts, who fail
DESCTAT OF TTIK HOLY GHOST LM3
in realise our plainost and most crvm<r needs, can
form no picture of the boundless hori/ons lhat open
out before 1lie soul tliat ejraco has lifted far above,
the things of earth. We have 710 conception of the
grandeurs and beauties which it is <_riven to lier to
contemplate and io desire. We do not even suspect
the existence of ihe riches for which she is bidden
to ask. Thus we cannot bring home to ourselves
what 'Thy Kingdom come" could mean on the
lips of that fair creature of (iod wlu'in lie had
possessed so fully from the ! ginning. Yet we can
understand that if she is t<> be the channel of irraee
to the Church, the neck uniting the Head to the
members, she must be, not only full of grace, bul
overflowing. As a fountain whence all mav draw,
she must be runnin;1; over. As a (jucen. her riches
must superabound that she mav dispcn-e on everv
hand. Therefore 'his holy one, like the last and
lowest in the Kingdom of (iod, praved : "Th\
Kingdom come.
It is easiei1 to realise what this prayer would mean
when prayed for the Twelve. The evangelisation
of the world was before them, and with wistful eves
they were looking towards the mountains whence their
help should come. Can we imagine instruments less
apt than those which (iod had provided for His hand.
So little conscious of the character of their mission,
that their last question before the Ascension was:
"Lord, wilt Thou at this lime restore the kingdom
to Israel?" So narrow, that at the Last Supper
they were disputing for precedence. So illiterate
214 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
and uncouth, that their very name of Galilean was
a reproach.
But the foolish things of the world had God chosen
that lie mi giit confound the wise; and the weak
things of the world that he might confound the
strong; and things that are not that He might
bring to nought things that are. That no nosh
should glory in His sight (I. Cor. 1). The whole
glory was to redound to that Holy Spirit who was now
about to descend upon His chosen to fit them for His
designs. It was for this descent that Mary's prayer
went up with such a vehemence of supplication :
" Thy Kingdom come ! "
And she might add with her Divine Son : " Not for
them only do I pray, but for them also who through
their word shall believe" (John IT). In the purpose
of God, she through whom the Redeemer came is
the channel of grace to all the redeemed. With what
ardour, then, will she desire for each the coming
of that " Kingdom of God which is justice, and peace,
and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Horn. 14). We have
all of us had our share in our Mother's prayer for the
coming of the Holy Spirit. Let us remind her of
this and ask her to pray for the effect of that prayer
now.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,
now, that He may come to us and abide with us.
We are not ready for His coming, but it belongs
to a mother's homely office to prepare the children
for a visit. Help us, thy needy children, as a good
mother supplies her little ones from her own stores.
DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST iM5
Thou seest, Blessed Mother, how cold and caieles.-
we are, how wayward, slothful, selfish. He can and
will change us if we dis]x>se ourselves to receive Him.
We jiut ourselves into thy hand-. Make us ready
for Him. Pray Him who overshadowed thee to
descend upon us. Sav to Him for each one of us:
"Ihy Kingdom come!
VI. --They were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Acts ii.
See the assembly of one hundred and twenty on. the
morning of the iifiieih day, the Day of Pentecost.
All are in silent praver, waiting <:<d's time, not-
knowing His hour is at hand. No; ice, in the lowly
place she has chosen, thai handma :1 of the Lord
whom the Holy Ghost is about to overshadow for the
second t ime.
Hark! a sound from heaven as of a mighty -
coming. Hear ii filling the whole house where they
art1 sitting. See the parted tongues, as it weie of
fire, upon the head of every one of them. See
sudden kindling, of every countenance, testifying 10
the change that ha- been v
filled with the Holy Ghost, according to the capacity
and needs of each. lie has recalled to their mind?
all that Christ cur Lord had t;;' !'h1 them. lie
bestowed the gift of communicating to others
they have learned, and of being understood bv : en
of every nation, tribe, ai(.d tongue. They have power
to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to teach with
authority and with force, to convince the intellect
and to gain the will of tho>e who In ar ihem.
216 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
These gifts are necessary to them as preachers of
the Gospel. But there are others more personal and
precious. A marvellous change has been worked
in themselves. In an instant the Holy Spirit has
cleared away the obstacles He found in the soul of
each. Like a mighty wind He has swept over them,
vivifying, purifying, bracing. Like a consuming
fire He has refined in an instant what was " of the
earth earthly. ; Deeplv-rooted prejudices of race,
selfishness, intemperate zeal, jealousy, presumption —
failings that come out again and again in the Gospel
story, are gone, replaced by the charity of (rod that
is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost
who is given to them. Now they will boldly face
the Jewish priests saying : " If it be just in the sight
of God to hear you rather than God, judge ye " (Acts
4). Now they will go "from the presence of the
Council rejoicing that they are accounted worthy to
suffer reproach for the name of Jesus . . . and
every day will cease not in the Temple and from
house to house to teach and preach Christ Jesus."
Think of the humble gratitude, of the joyful praise
that goes up to God from the hearts of all as they
find in themselves the fruit of their Master's
promise : " I will ask the Father and He will give
you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you
for ever. . . . You shall know Him because
He shall abide with you and shall be in you "
(John 14).
If such were the gifts bestowed by the Holy
Ghost on the Apostles, with what a plenitude of
DKSCTXT OF THE HOLY CIIOST -J17
grace did He pour Himself 1'nrlli on Mary in \slmm
Ho found nothing in repel lull all In invite Hun.
How He delighted in this perfect work; this
supreme success from first to liust : tliis beautiful
one without spot or wrinkle, who alone ainoiiLT tlie
works of His hands had loved her Creator with her
wliole heart and soul, with all hev ninnl and with al
her strength; thi< sou! union'" nous
riches" one gem still shon .rut ah<>\
others -the humility thai had enabled Him wh<
mighty to do iiveat thintrs for h^r!
lloly M:iry. Spnuse of the Holy (iho^t. l.y the
exceeding1 love with J1 ' ' T''' came to thee at
Pentecost, pray for us. Dinners, that to us, too, He
may come, to purify, enlighten, heal, and enricli our
needy souls.
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Ephes. iv.
(move not the Holy Spirit. If to-day
I'pon a ireacherous path thy tret He stay,
Halt, and obey.
If unto nobler tasks, a higher plane
He beckon thee, spring forward to attain
The proffered i^ain.
Dcom it not liirlit that (ind II mself should lead
Thy laggard steps, and it to better speed
He ur^-e, give heed.
Commit to Him thy way. I'pon Him ra-<
Thy daily care. With Him. thine exile past,
Ixejoiee at la>t.
218 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
VII.— My Spirit shall be in the midst of you, fear not—
Aggeus ii.
(1) 0 children of Sion, rejoice and be joyful in
the Lord your God ; because He hath given you a
teacher of justice (Joel 2).
(2) Desire of Him to direct thy ways, and that all
thy counsel may abide in Him (Tobias 4).
(3) To-day if you shall hear His voice harden not
your hearts (Ps. 94).
(4) Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God (Ephes. 4).
(5) Who hath resisted Him and hath had peace?
(Job 9).
(0) The Spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee
and thou shalt be changed into another man (I.
Kings, 10).
(7) Cast me not away from Thy face, and take
not Thy holy Spirit from me (Ps. 50).
(8) Give to Thy servant an understanding heart
(III. Kings 3).
(9) Give me wisdom that sitteth by Thy throne
Wisd. 9).
(10) Send her out of Thy holy heaven, and from
the throne of Thy Majesty, that she may be with
me, and may labour with me, that I may know
what is acceptable with Thee (Id.).
THE ASSUMPTION OK TilK BLI->
VIRGIN.
I —"Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful o
and come ! The winter is now past, the rain is over and
gone, the flowers have appeared in our land. .
Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come!" Cant. li.
"\Vlio is she that yoeth up l>y the desert, as ;>
pillar of smoke of aromatieal spices, of mynh, and
frankincense? (Cant. -"») . . flowing with de-
li"-hts, leaning; upon her beloved? (Cant. S).
"Who is she that roinrth forth as the morning
rising, fair as tlie moon, bright as the sun, ternhle
as an army set in array?" (Cant. 0).
See the soul of Mary winirinir it- way to (ind.
See ho\v it leaves the eai'th. not stainless only, Imt
with its mti^nitirent <Z'itts developed to the utmost
to the i^lnry of Him who irave them.
Taste tlie sweetness of memory as Mary looks
down on the scenes where her life was laid.
Feel the ireinhlin^ eagerness with whirh she
ap])roaehes the Throne of the Most Hi«rli.
See her prostrate there, the handmaid of the Lord.
220 HAIL! FULL OF GBACE
II. — Put off the garments of thy mourning and affliction, and
put on the beauty and honour of that everlasting glory
which thou hast from God.— Earuch v.
The last picture of our L;M'Y in holy Scripture
shows her seated among the disciples, awaiting the
coining of the Holy Ghost. We find no further
record of her in its pages, and only from the scanty
notices of tradition can we learn anything of the
eight, nine, twelve, fifteen, eighteen, or, as some
say, twenty-four remaining years of her life on
earth. Where she lived in Jerusalem has not come
down to us. Some think her home was the Cenacle,
which was hallowed by the institution of the Blessed
Eucharist, the appearances of Christ after the
Resurrection, and the Descent of the Holy Ghost.
In the year A.I). 44, the persecution by Herod
Agrippa broke out and, according to a very ancient
tradition of the Church of Ephesus, St. John took
our Lady thither for greater safety. It is a disputed
point whether her death took place at Ephesus or at
Jerusalem. Perhaps the balance of traditional
evidence points to Jerusalem.
We might have thought the life of Mary 011 earth
would close with that of her Divine Son at the
Ascension. But there was a long term of exile to
come. James, Stephen, many and many a faithful
servant was called to his reward, while the Mother
was kept waiting. Her heart was drawn two ways.
Above, in the peace and glory of His Kingdom, was
her Divine Son. On earth, amid temptations and
THE ASSUMPTION 221
dangers, wore* the children committed to her by
Him. With greater reason than St. Paul she could
say: "I am straitened between two, having a desire
to bo dissolved and to be with Christ. . . . But
to abide still in the flesh is needful for you. And
having this confidence, 1 know that I shall abide
and continue with you for vour furtherance and joy
of faith" (Philip 1).
She had a special otiice to discharge towards tho
infant Church. During the forty hours of desola
tion, from Friday aitornoon to Master morning,
when their hopes were destroyed and their leaders
scattered, the disciples fled to her motherly bosom
for refuge and consolation. And when at the
Ascension our Lord's sensible presence was finally
withdrawn, she became the centre round which they
instinctively gathered. She was a possession
common to them all, a joy and protection, the
benefit of which must have been simply incalculable.
What a resource the Apostles found in her vigilance,
her counsel, her knowledge of the designs of God;
and in the motherly affection with which she
placed all her spiritual treasures at their disposal.
With what confidence they relied on the power of
her prayer. Thev brought to her the converts who
were daily added to tho Church, and who found
themselves surrounded by dangors of everv kind.
Row eager these new disciples would be to ^ee tho
^Mother of their Saviour, to hear, as she alone could
toll it, the story of Bethlehem and Mgypt, and of
the holv vears at Nazareth. She was herself u
222 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
living memory of the Three and Thirty Years, the
closest of links with their Redeemer. Those who
had kncwn Him would tell the less favoured how
she recalled to them His ways, His speech, His
manner of dealing with others, His very look.
What a continual grace her presence amongst
them mnst have been. What they mnst have owed
to the sanctity and example of the Mother of God.
They saw her in adoration before the Blessed Sacra
ment, assisting at the unbloody Sacrifice, absorbed
in her thanksgiving after Communion, visiting in
company with the holy women the places sanctified
by the footsteps of her Son. Whilst she remained
to them who had been His inseparable companion
for thirty years, who knew Him, understood Him,
loved Him as no other could do, their Lord's presence
seemed to linger on among them still.
She may seldom have been seen in public. Her
life was mainly given to prayer and meditation on
the mysteries in w^hich she had so marvellous a part.
But she will have been always ready with her
motherly sympathy and help wherever danger
threatened, whenever there was guidance or com
fort to be given. Every new convert was sure of a
welcome, of a willing ear to which he might confide
the history of God's dealings with his soul, of a
tender interest in all that touched him, of counsel
exquisitely adapted to his need. She took them all
to her motherly heart. She sustained the courage
of the martyrs and of the faithful under persecution.
She was the Refuge of sinners, the Comforter of the
THE ASSUMPTION 22P>
afflicted, ihe Mother of Good Counsel in difficult
IMSCS, the Perpetual Succour of all. Think what it
must have been in doubts, and tempt it ion, and
persecution to be able in have recourse to the wisdom
and the charity of the Mother of (iod!
And now the tidings were spreading through the
Church that this sacred lite could not be much
further prolonged. The perfect acquiescence that
made her accept the office assigned her towards the
infant Church, could not check the pining of her
soul after Him whom she loved:
"As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so
panteth my soul alter Thee, O (iod. My soul hath
thirsted after the strong, living God. \\"hen shall
I come and appear before the face of (ind'-3'' (Ps
41).
" Who will give me the wings of a dove, and I will
fly away and be at rest?" (Ps. 04).
"For Thee my soul hath thirsted, for Thee my
flesh, 0 how manv ways " (Ps. (>'J).
" Bring rny soul out of prison that I may praise
Thy Name""(Ps. 141).
Tn the first instant of her being Mary loved (Jod
with a perfect love. This love had o-one on increas
ing every moment of her lite. Tt LJTCW with every
look at Jesus, every ser\ ice rendered Him, every
look, and word, and act of His during the long years
they spent together. To what a height must that
love have reached when she stood by His side on
Olivet. When she saw Him ascending above JUT
- — without her, into His Kingdom. Only the hand
224 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
of God tliat had sustained lier on Calvary, and in
the first transports of the Resurrection enabled her
to love as she loved — and live on.
But the day came at last when the Church no
longer needed her visible presence, when the measure
of her merits was complete, when the Will of God
that had imposed sacrifice for so many years, called
her to rest and reward : " Arise, make haste, My
love, My beautiful one, and come ! The winter is
now past, the rain is over and gone, arise, My love,
My beautiful one, and come ! " There was her
" Fiat : Behold the handmaid of the Lord." And
her soul went forth to its Beloved. Her death was
the simple consequence of her love, of the vehement
tending to God that bore her to Him when He with
drew the force which kept her here. Sinless though
she was, she had to die, that she might be more
perfectly conformed to the likeness of her Son.
An ancient legend says that all the Apostles who
were then alive were present at her death and burial.
All except Thomas. Thomas had refused to believe
in the Resurrection till he should have the utmost
evidence of sen?o. Arriving among the Apostles
three days after the entombment of our Lady, he
expressed the very characteristic desire to see for
himself where they had laid the sacred body. They
opened the sepulchre and found it empty. But
spotless lilies were blooming where the body of Mary
Immaculate had been laid. Must not the cry of
praise have come to the lips of all : " Thou wilt not
suffer Thy holy one to see corruption " (Ps. 15).
TTTE ASSUMPTION 22
" She is not here, she is arisen : behold the pla< -
where we laid her !
III. — "And on the third day she laid away the garments she
wore, and put on her glorious apparel. And glittering in
royal robes . . . she stood before the king where he
sat on his royal throne." — Esther xv.
There was mingled joy and sorrow in tho hearts
of the disciples as thev turned away from the death
bed of Mary — motherless.
But beyond tho veil, what unclouded joy! What
bliss through the length and breadth of heaven.
What exultation amid the angelic host. What
preparations for receiving as their IJueon the lowli
est of the earth. See them trooping forth in mvriads
to moot her — Angels and Archangels, nominations,
and Principalities, and Powers, all the Heavenly
army. In their midst, the Son of Man, the Son of
Mary, His Sacred Heart boating quirk with lovin<>'
expectation as lie speeds on His way. Thronging
round Him a special escort, Joseph, and Joachim,
and Anna, and Kvc, and Adam. Our father
Abraham, and Moses, and David, and Judith, and
Esther.
llear the Angels and their human brethren incit
ing each other to tho praises of (u>d:
"0 ye Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord, praise
and exalt Him above all for over'' (Dan. .T).
" 0 ye sons of men, bliss the Lord, praise and
exalt Him above all for ever" (id.).
HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
" 1'less the Lord, all ye His Angels . . . "bless
tlie Lord, all ye His hosts " (Ps. 108).
" 0 ye holy "and humble of heart, bless the Lord,
praise and exalt Him above all for ever " (Dan. 3).
Hush ! "Who is this that cometh up from the
desert, Gabriel by her side? Comes with the swift
ness of light ; conies with the humility of the
creature, with the eagerness of a mother, with the
majesty of a queen? Oh see her as she falls at His
feet ; as she adores Him ; as she offers herself to
Him : " Ecce ancilla : Behold the handmaid of the
Lord ! " See how He raises her and folds her to
His Heart. Watch with ecstasy that meeting of
the Mother and the Son, the pledge of so many
"bless r1 ; bovond the grave, the reunion that
glorifies earth's sweet ties and re-knits them for
eternity !
'''There was silence in Heaven as it were for half
an hour" (Apoc. 8). There is silence all around as
the Son folds His Immaculate Mother in an embrace
; i .;mpensate her for pain such as He
alone has rndersiood, such as He alone can reward.
IIov,* shi ikes her soul's thirst at the Fount of
living water! How she gazes on His glory — and
is satisfied !
See Him presenting her to the homage of His
Heavenly Court, Queen of Angels and Archangels,
Patriarchs and Prophets, Apostles and Martyrs,
Confessors and Virgins, Queen of all Saints. Hear
as it resounds through space that >kAve!" in the
THE ASSUMPTION 227
Heavens: "Hail, lull of grace, (lie Lord is with
Iliee! rr!iou art Hie glory of -Jerusalem : iliou ail
ilie joy of Israel, <!iou art the honour of our people !
And Mary * ' My soul dotli magnify the Lord,
and niy spirit hath rejoiced in (iod my Saviour."
Watch her passing through, tiie Internal dates.
See the lowliness with which she presents herself
before the Throne of the Fver Blessed Trinity.
Behold hei' welcome there. The Fternal Fat. her
receives Lack unsullied from th;s sinful earth the
iirst and fairest oi His creatures. .Receives it l)ack,
not unsullied only, but in the fulness of perfect
beauty: the only soul that returns to His hands
with His design respecting it realised with faultless
perfection ; every gift and grace utilised to tin-
utmost, to His greater glory. See UK? tenderness
with wliieli He blesses this His well-beloved
Daughter. "Hehold the filial reverence with which
the Kternal Son welcomes into His Kingdom His
Mother \\ ho is to sit for ever at His riyht hand.
The inedible complacency and love with which the
Kternal Spirit broods over IL-; Immaculate Spouse.
" Let us be glad and rejoice and give glory to
Him " (Apoc. 1!J). O Fver Blessed Trinity, herein
is our joy, that Thou ail pleased to joy in Mary.
We give Thee thanks tor the great glory Thou do>t
receive, and through eternity shall receive from this
perfect work of Thy hands. (ilory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to tiie Holy Ghost. As it was
in the beginning, is now, and over shall be, world
without end. Amen.
228 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
IV.— Thou shall be called My pleasure in her.-Isaias Ixii.
Hail to thee, Maid of Nazareth! alone
In thy pure beauty. Thou shalt call thine own
The co-eternal Son. Bowed low her head,
" Behold the handmaid of the Lord," she said,
" His Will be done ! "
Mother of Sorrows ! on the Tree accursed
Must hang the tender Child thy bosom nursed,
A living death thy lot. " Yea, even so,
Blest be the Father's pleasure. In my woe
His Will be done ! "
Lo ! He ascendeth in triumphant state,
Leaving thee, Blessed Mother, desolate.
" Glory to Him on high and endless praise,
Justified in themselves are all His ways,
His Will be done ! "
"Hearken, 0 Daughter, and incline thine ear,
Past is the winter's frost, the flowers appear,
Arise, make haste, and come ! " She heard, she sped
Whither He called. Still, as His handmaid, said :
" Thy Will be done ! "
"Life in His Will." l Peace in the "Fiat" here,
That binds us to our God mid trial and tear ;
There in the Home above, the "Fiat" still,
The joyous revelling in our Father's Will
As it is done in Heaven.
29.
THE ASSUMPTION 229
V. — It is good for me to adhere to my God. — Ps. Ixxii.
See the room where, surrounded by the Apostles
and the holy women, her companions, the Mother
of God awaits the moment of death.
Every eye is fixed reverently upon her. She has
been their teacher, then1 counsellor, iheir comforter,
their refuge, since the Ascension of her Divine Son.
And now the hour lias come for her last lesson in
this life,
What is that lesson !' One that it behoves every
creature to learn, from the lowliest to the most
exalted ; th(4 lesson iii'e is given us to learn ; the
lesson that renders every death of His saints precious
in the sight of God : " It is good for me to adhere
to my God.''
It is good for me to realise that of myself I am
nothing, that my duty, my ut.il it v, my safety, my
happiness, my glory, consist in my dependence on
my Creator — " Kcce ancilla, behold the handmaid of
the Lord ! "
It is good for me to listen for His secret voice in
my heart and conscience : to hearken and incline
my ear to every word that proceeds from His mouth:
"Speak, Lord, lor Thy servant hcareth: Kcce
ancilla ! "
It is good for me to know by a most intimate
conviction that all my Lr()()d con<i>N in adhering1 to
Ilis Will; in accepting with filial confident e everv
disposition of TTis Providence as regards myself or
230 HAIL! FULL OF GEACE
others : " Yea, Father, for so hath it seemed good
in Thy sight" (Matth. 11). " Ecce ancilla ! "
It is good for me to understand and feel that in
the trials and difficulties of daily life, no less than
in its moments of crisis, my best of friends is my
Creator ; His bosom my resting-place ; His arms
my refuge ; His strength my safety : His Providence
my trust ; His love my all in all. " For what have
I in Heaven but Thee, and beside Thee what do I
desire upon earth " (Ps. 72). " Ecce ancilla ! "
And if in life, much more in death, it is good for
me to cleave to my God, to cling to Him in com
plete abandonment, in perfect trust. Let me lay
myself down in His anus to die. And waking there
in the next life, like a child from sleep, let me
realise as I look up into His face, realise through a
happy eternity, that it was indeed good for me to
adhere to my God, to put my trust in the Lord God.
VI.— The souls of the just are in the hand of God and the
torment of death shall not touch them.— Wisd. iii.
Death shall touch us every one, but the saints,
safe in the hand of God, shall not feel its torment.
What is that torment?
Three things are wont to assail and torture the
dying :
(1) The remembrance of past sins ; of time, and
grace, and opportunities lost, and lost — for ever.
(2) The present anguish of mind and body, caused
by physical and mental distress; by the coming
Till- ASSUMPTION
separation from family, friends, possessions,
all the heart holds dear; by the temptations oi the
Evil One who knows his tune is short.
(',}) The uncertain future — eternity
the tear of the judgments of (Jmd : ' Man knoweth
not whether lie be worthy of love or of hatred
(Eccles. 9).
This is the "torment" that vraits upon the death
bed. What is there to prevent the trembling soul
from sinking into despair:"
''Underneath are the everlasting arms (J)eut.
33) to sustain, and shield, and shelter it. God has
at hand for that hour the grace of His sacraments
to allay the torment of death, even to remove it
altogether and change it into a foretaste .»t eternal
joy. "Precious in the sight of tin- Lord is ihc-
'death of LLis saints" (Ps. 110). ed are the
dead who die in the Lord ; from henceforth
they may rest from their labours for their works
follow them" (Apoc. 14).
"Their works." We must have done our work
if we are to lie down trustfully to our ivst in the
arms of our Heavenly '/ather. We mu>t have
done our work if we arc to expect 11 is recompense.
" Work your work beloie the time and lie will gi\
you your reward in .1 1 is { ; me
must have so lived our life that '• can make our
retrospect as we lie down to die a happy and a hopeful
one. AVe must have washed
them white in the Ulood of the Land) it we an
be fit to appear before Hun. AVe must have used
232 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
time, and grace, and opportunity whilst they were
ours. God Himself cannot restore them when the
end has come. " Walk whilst you have the light,
that the darkness overtake you not" (John 12).
We must have schooled ourselves to submission to
God's Will in physical and mental trials. We must
have been in the world but not of it ; held its fleeting
goods with a loose hand, and let Him who gave,
take away, as it pleased Him.
We must have learned to trust Him with so per
fect a reliance during our journey on earth, that
we can cast ourselves into His arms with a child's
unquestioning faith when He calls us Home. The
holiest, safest, most meritorious preparation for
death, is this complete abandonment to our Heavenly
Father for any disposal He may make of us in time
and eternity.
For those who have thus lived in the hand of God
during life, death has no terrors, its torment shall
not touch them.
VII. — May my soul die the death of the just, and my last end
be like unto theirs. — Numb, xxiii.
My God, I commend to Thy Fatherly keeping the
most momentous hour of my life, the hour on which
eternity hangs — the hour of my death.
Let it come when Thou seest me best prepared.
Let it come with that time for preparation which Thou
seest best, and attended by the circumstances which
Thou who knowest my need shalt appoint — so much
THE ASSUMPTION 2;tt
of physical pain, of temptation, of mental suiVering
as will be for my greater good, and no more: so
much spiritual assistance and consolation aa will
profit me.
If, as I hope, Thou hast in store for me the last
succours of the Church, let me bring to them such
preparation as will enable me to draw from them
abundant fruit. Let me leave nothing1 to be said
in my last confession, but put Jill straight with Thee
now. Help me in my lust hour to make an act of
perfect contrition — -of sorrow because I have dis
honoured and wronged Thee, my Father, by the sins
01 in \ ie
1 shall be verv weak then and wandering, weary,
and in pain of bodv and mind. 1 cannot expect,
dear Lord, that mv preparation for nveivmg Thee
in Holy Communion for the la^t time will be better
than it is now when I am in health. Accept what
I shall be able to give Thee. Help me to make my
acts of faith and hope and charity, of humility and
desire. Help me in my thanksgiving. Come to
me then with all the help 1 shall need ior the hist
passage— faith to hold fast all that Thy Church
tenches: trust to cling fast to Thee in spite of the
terrifying sight of my sins: patience to take from
Thv hand all the pains and sorrows of death; con
fidence to cast myself into 1 hv arms for time and
eternity, trusting to Thy Sacred Heart the sentence
that in to decj.lp my eternal lot,
Prepare me Thyself for the last holv anointing.
Purify mv cimi! from the last relics of >in 1>\ the
234 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
touch of Thy Church in Extreme Unction. Forgive
me all my misuse of my senses throughout my life.
Let me benefit to the full by the Last Blessing and
Plenary Indulgence. Put into my soul so deep
a sorrow for my sins that the whole temporal punish
ment they have deserved may be remitted.
And then, when the Church has laid her hand
upon me for the last time, and is giving me up into
Thy hands, receive me, 0 my Saviour, with loving-
kindness and with mercy. May my trembling soul
depart in the safe keeping of Thy holy Mother,
under the protection of Michael, " the prince of all
the souls to be received," and of my holy Angel
Guardian. Thus let me be brought into Thy
presence. Thus let me look up into Thy face, and
hear Thee say : " Come, blessed of My Father,
come !"
VIII. — God will show His brightness in thee, to every one
under heaven. — Baruch v.
(1) Thou shalt no more have the sun for thy light
by day, neither shall the brightness of the moon
enlighten thee, for the Lord shall be unto thee for
an everlasting light, and thy God for thy glory
(Isaias 60).
(2) Thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand
of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy
God (Isaias G2).
(3) Go in to the King, and entreat Him for thy
people. Who knoweth whether thou art not there-
THE ASSUMPTION 2:J5
fore come to tho kingdom that thou mightcst be
ready in such a time as this:' ( Ksther -1).
(4) .Do thou speak to the King [or us, and deliver
us from death (Esther I-)).
(5) And she said to the Kinur: I desire one small
petition of Thee. And the Kinp said to her: My
^Mother ask for 1 must not turn away thy face (III.
Kin^s 13).
((») She sj)f)ke to Him all that she had in her
heart \nd the Kin^ pive her all that she
desired and asked of Him (III. Kings 10).
THE CORONATION OF THE BLESSED
VIRGIN IN HEAVEN.
I.— And the King arose to meet her, and bowed to her, and
sat down upon his throne, and a throne was set for the
King's mother, and she sat on his right hand.— 3 Kings ii.
And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with
the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a
crown of twelve stars. — Apoc. xii.
See the meek majesty of Mary, as with hands
folded on her breast, she bends before her Son to
receive her crown.
See the filial reverence, the content, the joy with
which He crowns His chosen Mother and seats her
on His right hand.
See the profound homage paid her by the Court
of Heaven.
And hear her humble explanation of it all : " He
that is mighty hath done great things to me, and
holy is His name."
The heavenly Jerusalem is glorious beyond all
that the richest imagination can conceive, with
THE CORONATION 237
its foundations of precious stones, its gates of pearl,
its streets of pure gold; with the river of the water
of life (dear as crystal, proceeding from the throne
of God and of the Lamb, and on both sides of the
river the tree of life. No need of sun or moon to
shine on it, for the glory of dod enlightens it and
the Lamb is the lamp thereof. A great multitude
which no man could number, of all nations and tribes
and peoples and tongues stand before the throne,
clothed in white robes and palms in their hands.
Thousands of thousands minister to Him who sits
upon the throne, and a hundred times a hundred
thousand stand before Him (Dan. 7).
What must a coronation be in that glorious city!
What was the glory of that diadem of stars with
which the Queen of Angels was crowned by her
Son, the King of Kings !
Who crowns? The just Judge who will render to
everv man according to his works, and who finds
every thought, word, and work of Mary throughout
a long life deserving of the highest recompense. He
crowns who is her Sun as \Nell as her Judge, and
whose filial Heart thrills with joy at the magnificence
of the reward He is able to bestow.
Who is crowned? The lowliest of earth's chil
dren; the work of His hands as one of us; an hour
ago an exile mourning and weeping in this valley
of tears. One who has never disappointed Him;
who has glorified Him perfectly from the first mo
ment of her exigence; who has dedicated her whole
to Him with a generosity that reserved
238 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
Rothing for self; who has taken His Will for the
rule of her life even to its least details. One to
whom has been confided the highest dignity that
God Himself could bestow on a creature, and who
has proved herself worthy of His confidence.
What is crowned in Mary? This faultless
fidelity ; faith, hope, and charity, by which she has
adhered to God with ever - growing strength and
affection; humility that at a height which places
her in the most intimate relations with the God
of Heaven and earth, sees nothing in herself but the
handmaid of the Lord ; patience that the weight of
her cross never wearied ; perseverance thut sustained
the heroism of every virtue up to the end.
How is Mary crowned ? With a glory correspond
ing with her dignity, her merit, her office in the
Kingdom of God. All that God can communicate
of His riches, He makes over to her freely — unpar
alleled exaltation, universal sovereignty, the dis
pensation of His treasures, omnipotent intercession
with Himself. " My Mother, ask, for I must not
turn away thy face " (III. Kings 2). " And the King
gave the queen all that she desired and asked of
Him, besides what He offered her of Himself of His
royal bounty" (III. Kings 10). He gave her the
homage and service of Angels, who, from the lowest
to the highest, glory in their subjection to their
human Queen. He gives her consolation and joy
for every sorrow she has suffered for His sake. And
such abounding joy that we have no thoughts to
think it. If it hath not entered into the heart of
THE CORONATION 239
man to conceive what God lias prepared for such as
we are, how should we be able to rise to the com
prehension of Mary's jo\' ! She herself lias no
words tor it. She can only say: " Jie that is mighty
hath done great things to me.
lie who crowned the Mother is waiting to
crown the children. To us too lie is the just .Judge
who will render to every one according t-> his works.
Do these words awake tear rather than hope in
us who are conscious of our sinl'uiness and know not
whether we are worthy of love or ot hat red? AVe
must not wrong God by taking a one-sided view
of His justice. lie rewards in eternity all He can
tind to reward. lie shows II i> justice by remem
bering — not our failings only— as the enemy and our
fearful hearts would have us believe, but the least
little things in which He can discover a particle of
good. lie who crowns is not our -Judge only but our
Father and our Friend, whom no good thought,
word, work, or desire has ever escaped, and who has
treasured up all against the day oi' reward, He
crowns who often and oiten discerns merit where wo
see nothing but failure and fault, because while we
consider re>ults, lie looks solely ;.t the good will and
the eil'ort. He crowns who, precisely because he
is just, is merciful and indulgent. For lie knoweth
our Irame. "His eyes sec1 our imperfect being"
( 1's. 1;>8). lie remembereth that we are dust " (l}s.
102).
What arn I getting ready for Him to crown?
240 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
II.— They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of
heaven with much power and majesty.— Matth. xxiv.
In the Rosary I look back on scenes that are past.
If I have a place therein it is by thought and affec
tion only. But in the last mystery I may look for
ward to a scene in the future in which I shall
be intimately concerned, in which I shall take part,
not in thought only, but personally, body and soul.
As truly as Mary stood on Calvary at the Cruci
fixion, and the Apostles on. Olivet at the Ascension,
shall I stand in the vallov of Jehoshaphat on the
last day to await my .Judge. " Come, all ye nations
from round about, and gather yourselves together.
Let them arise and coino up into the valley
of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all
nations " (Joel 3).
I will go thither iu spirit now and behold the
preparations for Judgment.
There have been disturbances in the heavens, in
the air, in the sea. The earth, swept by a devouring
fire, is reduced to a charred, black mass — churches,
libraries, theatres, the palaces and the slums of great
cities — all destroyed. Heaps of ashes and the silence
of the grave where the world's turmoil and traffic
was. •' Merchandise of gold and silver and precious
stones, and of pearls, and of fine linen
and odours and ointment, and wine, and oil, and
wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots
. . . all goodly things are perished and shall be
found no more at all in her. And the voice of musi-
THE COROXATFOX 24!
clans shall no more bo heard at all in her; and no
craftsman of anv art whatsoever shall he found any
more at all in her, and the sound of the mill shall
he heard no more at all in her. And the light of the
lamp shall shine no more at all in her, and the
voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall be heard
no more at all in her" (Apoc. l^i. Created things
have done their work. They were made for the
service of man. (iod's servants have used them well,
sinners ill. All are now called to give an account
of their stewardship.
I hear the blast of the Archangel's trumpet :
" Arise, ye dead and come to .Judgment.'1 As light
ning flashing from west to east, souls speed from
heaven, purgatory, hell, to seek in the graves of
earth and in the sea their companions of lung ago,
the bodies in which they worked out their salvation
or their ruin. I see the meeting oi' the souls and
bodies of the eleet and of the reprobate. In
(lie twinkling of an eye all are transported to the
valley of Jehoshaphat for the final scene of the
world's history. \Vhat meetings there, and what
separations, as the Angels part into two companies
the millions oi the human race, to >tand on the rii^ht
hand and on the left of the -Judge. 1 .-hall be there.
Where will be my placet Angels and saints know
my lot lie fore my Judge appears.
1 see tin' astonishment of men to fin 1 the world
destroyed: their estimate of its grandeurs and ius
pleasures now. Behind then*. 4*> the west is C.'al-
K
242 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
vary where their Redemption was wrought. Above,
in the clouds, the Throne of the Judge.
The heavens part. The procession comes forth.
In a flood of blinding light appears the Sign of the
Sou of Man, br.rno by Angels. The upturned fact .-»
of men reflect its ?lory. Our Lord appears, His
TVrounds shining as the sun. His Blessed Mother
as Queen. All mankind without exception fall
prostrate before Him and adore the Sacred Hum
anity. They rise and look upon Him whom they
have piercer].
I hear the cry of joy of the elect as they are
caught up into the clouds to meet Him. He seats
Himself upon the Throne of His Majesty. Each
human being stands before Him and is judged by
Him. Every thought, word, and deed, however
hidden, is laid bare before the whole world ; the
terrors of that Day, the vast multitudes arraigned,
the concern of every one for himself, not distracting
any from the manifestation of each. I see the
agonising slmme of the wicked ; of those who did not
dare to confess their sins in life; the consolation and
joy of the just who have washed their robes in the
Blood of the Lamb and now appear spotless in His
sip'ht. The good is published as well as the bad.
All the virtue of the saints, every victory over temp
tation, every act of meekness, self-denial, kindness
to the suffering members and to the little ones of
Christ, every gacrct prayer and good desire — all is
revealed.
1 hear Our Lord giving sentence: u Come ye
THE GLORY OF THE SAINTS 243
Blessed. Depart ye cured." I see the despair of
those who are banished inr ever from the company
ol' Christ and His saints; how they depart weeping
and wailing into everlasting fire. I sec clearlv ho\v
in losing Cod they have In>l all. I share the trail -
p"H,s ol joy \\ ith which the saints hciiold the triumph
ol their Lord so h>n<_>- delayed. Yonder lav the citv
where lie was mocked and t irturcd for them, the
Mount where he was crucified for them. 1 see the
dazzling beauty of ^o many glorified bodies; ihc
delight of the saints in the agility, subtletv, bright
ness, that now belong to them. I bear the rejoicing,
the congratulations on every side; the som_fs of
exultation and praise as I hey mount info the heavens,
higher and higher: " Alleluia. Salvation, and glorv,
and power is to our God. For true and just are His
juuynienU. Alleluia. The Lord our God, the
Almighty hath reigned. Let us be giad and rejoice
and give glory to Him, for the marriage of the
Lamb is come " (Apoc. ]!)).
The Eternal Gates open before them. They pass
in with ,le,sus and Mary. Shall 1 be there!'* The
(iates are shut. (J God, on which side shall I he:"
P.lhe choice remains with me now. J{\- everv act of
my life I am choosing mv place for eternity.
U Mother of God and my Mother, piav for me
now. Thy prayer on that Day would be too late.
\\ hatever happens to me in this life, I must, 1 must
secure my eternity in the next with Thy Divine
Son and with tliee. Pray for me that I may not be
lost in the dreadful Judgment. Let all thin
gs
244 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
pleasures, companions, self - indulgence, worldly
position, anything and everything that would
endanger my salvation.
III.— "Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess you the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the
world."— Matth. xxv.
What a joyous life begins when the Gates of
their Home close behind the children of God ! With
out, across the gulf, crouches the deadly foe who
pursued them with unrelenting hate up to the mo
ment of death. He is chained. He is conquered.
He will never trouble them more. No more temp
tation or fear. No more evil tendencies. No more
conflict without or within. The former things are
passed away. They have fought the good fight.
The day of triumph and reward is come.
Into what a glorious company we are admitted !
See the meetings ! Hear the congratulations ! The
Angels who have never known the taint of sin, are
welcoming with brotherly affection those who have
washed their robes in the Blood of the Lamb, and
who are now their companions, their worthy com
panions, for eternity. How wondrously the gifts
of immortality, agility, subtlety, brightness, have
transfigured " the body of our lowliness " ! Are
these the same bodies in which our salvation was
laboriously worked out, which were such a clog
to us on earth ? The transformation of the crawl
ing caterpillar into the gorgeous butterfly, of the bare
Till! GLORY OF THE SAINTS 1245
wintry landscape into I. ho glories of summer foliage
and flower, is a poor figure of the change the Resunvc-
lion has wrought in the bodies of the saints. Of in
describable and infinitely varied loveliness, I see
they are all conformed to their Prototype, the Risen
Body of Christ. I understand now what Re meant
when He said: "He that eateth My Klesh and
drinkoth My Blood, hath everlasting life: and I will
raise him up in the last day " (.John. (>). Oh why did
1 not think oftoner in my Communions of that
pledge of eternal life which lie gave me in giving
me II imself !
Hut the change in the soul is more wondrous still.
All its powers are renovated, perfected, satisfied.
Whatever can irive happiness in the remembrance of
ihe past, in looking hack on our lives, in the recol
lection of what God has done for us, and of what we
have done for Him, is present to the memory without
effort, as a delicious fount of joy. Whatever would
overcloud the soul's happiness even for an instant,
is banished from its remembrance for ever. All
darkness and dulness in the understanding has
vanished like a cloud before the sun. We see our
(lod. We are face to face with the Eternal Truth.
We know even as we are known. The pleasure that
comes from the full development of the noblest
faculty of our soul and its employment on the Infinite
(rod, is indescribable. Our minds are keen, eager,
strong. And they penetrate the deep things of (iod
with an ever-growing wonder and delight.
And the will what a change theie! No moie
HAIL! FULL OF GHACE
sluggishness, no more coldness, no more distraction.
To look on God is to be drawn to Him with all the
soul's vehemence and power of love. Every affec
tion centres in Him with whom we have I/at one will,
in the calm thrilling enjoyment of whom we are at
rest. Oh that rest in the Bosom of Gorl ; that peace,
that security in the possession of Him whom we love
with every fibre of our being, of Him who made us
for Himself, from whom nothing can ever separate
us ! Is not this untiring energy and activity of all
our powers, this tranquil repose and contentment
of all — Life indeed ! How poor compared with Life
Eternal was that existence we called life awhile ago !
God is my Father, and He makes me feel I am in
very truth His child. He makes me welcome to all
the delights of my Home. " Take all, child. See,
hear, enjoy all without fear. The days of restraint
are past. All is for you. The more you enjoy
what I have prepared for you from eternity, the
more you will please and glorify Me." How can
I help enjoying where all is perfect and delightful
beyond anything I could have conceived. All that
can charm the senses is here. The sounds, the sights,
the fragrant scents of my Home, how sweet they are !
On every side songs of praise are rising to the Throne
of God. And in the ravishing harmony I distin
guish the dear, familiar voices silenced so long ago
on earth, and, as it seemed, for ever.
How miserable would the most gorgeous pageants
of earth appear beside the grand sights of Heaven !
These thousands of thousands of blessed spirits.
Tin; (iLOKY OF Tin-; SAINTS LMT
Tliese count!*1 s host- o; saints. \\ hat joy to carry
on in eternitv the friendship \\ilh them be<n;n on
earth. T.> mivt our Pat!"n Saint- n • a.*
.Patrons, but as dear brothers ;i d sisters in
our Father's House, ail rejoicing in our happ ness,
all so irlad u e are i i h • marv. lions
charitv e -re ! No1 . vast multitud •
but breaks forth into fresh ( lud for n <
company, and call:- on me to i - voice
theirs and take up my part i; the unending ^'iiirs
of jubilee. Hi: ' :
; ( i nan 1 • .
"
hied in my d.-ii</hl • •• ' h-ar Ani el i n
ve and for<_pci and \\
in ;ie past? What happiness io meet ;n a i I ed
etern itv those who v
on i aril) : to tind Ihe old home reeonstn
M-; ; -tt IIoiui v, here all shall 1
before the l'\!('e of our Father who
Heaven !
( )ne of the surprises oii Hen '1 so com
pletely at ease in the mid>t of such ma^nifi
sanetit v. I keep 101 irettin-' that 1 : \ no i
1 was ; that the <_• lo: -ions cl 'in ol hei >,
they see with «leli«rli 1 am woi ; l,\ -oh. can
ii be i-eully true ! ol t he coi
•and saints. And l)ei e are no at th's
; - i raint 1 1 < at i n •.'• t hose in lott ler
stations than our.-elves. Thouirh in oar Fatlier's
; [uu.,e thei e ai e n ,»n\ mansions, AC an 1 1 . .. to :
248 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
and out as we will, welcome everywhere, everywhere
the objects of an overflowing affection that has
utterly taken me by surprise. Wherever we go we
are at Home. And the higher we ascend the more
easy of access we find our blessed companions.
I kneel at Mary's feet. I feel her hand resting on
my shoulder. I look into her face and meet her
smile, and know my Mother understands all I would
say. At last I can love and thank her as she
deserves.
Higher still. I fall at the feet of Jesus. I adore
Him with all the intensity of worship, love, and
gratitude of which. I am capable now. He raises
me with tender words, and I dare to lift my eyes
and look upon Him. This is He who became incar
nate for me, -.vho died -for me; whom at prayer, and
in Ihe silence of the night, and as T gazed upon the
\\hiie Host in the monstrance I have tried to picture
to myself. For the first time I see the Human Face
of Jesus. His eyes look down into mine. What that
first glance of His has said ! It has told me how
dear I am to Him, how happy He is to have me safe
with Him at last. lie lays His wounded Hands
upon my head. He speaks to me. I hear the tones
of the Yoice that thrilled to their depths the souls
of Mary, and Joseph, and Peter, and Magdalen, and
John. What are all the songs of Heaven compared
with the music of that Voice ! How sweet He is,
how gracious, how attractive ! Who would think
that Infinite Majesty could be so tender ? That He
who knows me through and through, knows how I
Till-: GLORY OF T1IK SAINTS i>40
have served Him, lio\v miserably I have corresponded
with TIi< Lrracc, could treat me like this! lie thanks
nit1 for every little thuiLT 1 have ever done for Him,
things I had forgotten, things that <eem boncatli TTis
notice. I look up at Him through such happy tears.
"Lord, dost Thou thank we'? ( )li if the pasl years
were to come over airaiu, there should l)e a d i (Terence
O
in my service and in my love ! Why was not all my
service love of Thee !
Hi'jrher still. All this excess of irlory and happi
ness, this lu-uuty and splendour, this delightful com
panionship with Anirels and Saints, this reunion with
those we love — all this is not the i-ssential bliss of
Heaven, but a mere acces>orv, the additional joy
which comes to the Jtlessed from crcaHires. The
essential happiness is ihal which the soul receives
immediaielv from (iod in the Beatilie Vision, that
happy-making si^ht which banishe- all pain and
sorrow and infuses eternal joy. As children of God,
one tiling alone can content us wlie-i the mists of this
world are swept uwav the Face of our Father who is
in Heaven. Fven in this life, even before the Incar
nation had revealed our Father to us as it has done,
the (TV of the human heart was for that Face." I
have souirht Thy Face . . . Turn not away Thy
Face from me (Ps. 'JH). Cast me not away from Thy
Face i. 1's. •'>*>). Thou -halt till me with joy with
Thv countenance ( I's. !•>).
The babe in its mother's arm-> looks up into her
face and is content. Now and a^ain she plays with
it, hiding IHT face. Hut if the hiding lasts, if the
250 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
veil does not quickly drop, there will be wailing
cries.
0 my Heavenly Father — Father, Mother, all in
all to me, I the least of Thy children, I too long to
see Thy Face. However my heart has been stained
and spoilt, however far it has wandered from Thee,
it is the heart of Thy child still. " Show me Thy
Face " (Cant, 2). When shall I appear before the Face
of God? (Ps. 41).
IV. - 1 hese that cir-i clothed in white robes, who are they, and
whence came they? -Apoc. vii.
Who are I- ese without spot before Ihe 1 krone of
God?
Souls that awhile ago were struggling with tempta
tion and with sin. That were full of imperfections.
That had their strivings and their f^.Ils, their srood
and bad days, their disappointments, their discour
agements. There were times when Heaven seemed
so distant and shadowy as to be almost unreal. And
the interests of time were pressing, and the world
and the things of sense were all but overpowering
in their claims.
But Faith kept us safe. We saw dimly, indeed ;
through a glass in a dark manner. But we did see.
And what we saw we hoped for. The sight of our
Home lured us on. We shook ourselves free from
what was entangling us, and set our faces steadfastly
to go to Jerusalem.
Arid here we are at last ! Faith did not deceive us.
rll!i- GLORY OF TTIL SAINTS LT>1
It. was all trur that she -howcd. Hut was that
true an<l ; eal which so nearly ensnared us '.' Seen
from (his '"-irrhl, jn the li^ht of Truth, it look- -o
thin and va^ue and unattractive, that we t an scarcely
believe it could once have '..een a danger.
V. What I do thou knc;vcst not now but thou shalt know
hereafter. John xiii.
One of I!M- joys await ins; u< in Heaven is to hear
from the lips of our Lor'! H imselt, as we kneel al
[I ;.; f, ,-t -Ms of li ; ' ^ ill' '"- 1(l ll|(1
,.a..j •- 'j'he jll(] of ! he i .on! are i ru . \\ *1 i-
1ie,l in themselve^ i. 18). What lie >i<>«" needs
no justification. It must always he riirht, always the
l,(.s| for us. If we are loyal to Him this is as clear
to us as the sun at noon. Vet, with all our trust,
we look forward to the fulfilment oi \V\< promise:
" What I do thou knowest not now hut thou -halt
know hereafter.' The day coi when He deigns
to explain to us Mis mysterious ways with us in life.
Wliv the cross u as not lifted thouirh we prayed so
earnestly and so lonjjr. Why a irraee that seemed
necessary was refused us, and plans that concerned
Hi- Lrlorv went unblessed.
He reminds us how the sisters at Hethany sen! to
lljm i,, their distress. " Lord, he whom Thou Invest
;s sick." No peiilion. lull a message, every \\ord
Ol xvhidi .-poke of iiust more powerful than any
pleading. It went -trai«:ht to H:s Heart. Yet He
letl them in then .-o, low and dcsola! ion \ nd their
252 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
brother died. ~Not even then did He go to comfort
them. In loneliness and heaviness of heart, and
not a little wonder at the Master's ways, they followed
their dead to the grave. And went back to the
desolate home and began their days of mourning.
Then He came to them. His disciples who knew
His love for that little household had marvelled too
at His delay. And still more at His words to them :
" I am glad for your sakes that I was not there.1'
Our Lord's friends knew the tenderness of His
Heart. And thus it was that when at last He came,
both sisters as they fell at His feet told Him in the
same words that had He been with them and seen
their pain, their brother's death simply could not
have happened.
He owns to this Himself. k* I am glad for your
sakes that I was not there," Ho had said to the
Apostles. Glad because of the gain to their faith
by the resurrection of Lazarus, and because of the
exercise of faith, confidence, and patience on the
part of Martha and Mary. But He speaks as if He
could not have trusted His Heart in the sorrowing
household : kk I am glad for your sakes that I was
not there." Even when the hour of consolation was
come, when in a few moments the brother they
mourned would be restored to them, even then their
tears drew forth His own. " Jesus, therefore, when
He had seen her weeping, and the Jews weeping also,
troubled Himself in spirit . . . And Jesus
wept."
" I am glad for vour sakes." So will He say io
THE GLORY OF HIE SAINTS 253
us in the hour when His hand <hall wipe away all
tears from our eyes. " <) child, I am glad now of all
the distress there has been in the past ; of the hours
of patient suffering, and waiting, and disappoint
ment; of the pain in partings ; of the broken-hearted
sorrow beside the grave. I am glad that in view
of this hour of recompense I did violence to My pity
and My love, restraining both that your heart n.a\
rejoice now with exceeding great joy, that according
to the multitude of sorrows in your heart Mv com
forts may give joy to your soul" (Ps. !)•'!).
VI. — " Requiescat in pace."
"May they rest in peace/' is the prayer of Mother
Church for us when life here is done. " May he rest
in peace," as she turn-' away from the deathbed that
she has tended, and soothed, and sanctified up 'o
tin1 last; as she commits to the earth the body that
is to be held in trust for the Resurrection. ' Mas-
he rest in j)C-ace," as she follows the soul on its
journey to the Judgment seat and pleads for it there.
" May they rest in peace," as she ga/es wistfully after
her children from her altars, and in every hour of
her oilice, remembering them IOIILT long, perchance,
after their dearest on earth have forgotten them.
What is this peace that -he bespeaks for \\^'^ For
the body it is the well-earned repose after the burden
and heat of the day through which it has toiled in
the Ma-ter's service. It is the consignment to earth
of the Lrniin that must die before n>;ng aga.n to its
new and prujn-r life.
254 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
And the soul — where is its rest? Where but in the
Bosom of God whence it came. He must pillow it
there 07- it will throb and ache with torturing pain,
with the ceaseless craving of unsatisfied desire, for
the term of its separation from Him, or for ever.
"Thou hast made us for Thyself (J Lord, and our
heart is restless until it rests in Thee."
May the soul rest in peace upon the Bosom of
God even here? Can it amid this scene of turmoil
and unceasing change lie there in security, untossed,
untroubled? Not with the freedom from fear and
sorrow that awaits it hereafter, not with the fulness
of joy that is to be its portion when the Father's
arms close over it for ever and shield it from the
least passing breath of ill. Not, then, with "the
abundance of peace " which is to come.
Yet even in this life it may truly rest in peace,
for the God of peace is its portion, its refuge, its
home even now. Even now we may cast our care on
Him so unreservedly, trust Him so fully, abandon
ourselves to Him so entirely, that the cares and dis
appointments, the bereavements, all the physical and
mental trials of this changeful life will not disturb
our rest. They may be surface troubles, or they may
pierce to the quick and leave a life-long wound.
None the less, the deepest depth of our soul where
its vital and most secret energies are stored, may
be at peace, for like Deicola who ever smiled we may
say: tk No one can take my God from me."
Of his fourteen Epistles St. Paul begins all but one
with the salutation: "Grace to you and peace from
THE GLORY OF TIIK SAINTS -Jf,:,
(iod our Father." His vieat heart was ever in closest
sympathy with those it loved, weak with the weak,
weepinir with those in sorrow. It was not om
mock the sorely tried l»y wishing then, a i^fl bevond
then- reach. hut he sees tiotliim: ;,, iIH,;r |jj-,, (1|
outward persecution and inwan] strife that need di--
turl) their peace. Writing to his converts in Rome
who were in the very furnace of trihnlalion
"famine, persecution, the sword,' he savs : "Now
the (MM! of peace lie \\ith vou all. Amen" ( Rom
15).
VII. -"Well done, good and faithful servant!" Matth. xxv.
The longest life in the ser ice of (iod i- well
re-aid at last by those words: "Well done!" Or
rather there is no proportion at all between the mo.-t
[)rotracted service, fifty year- of the mo.-t h« roic sacri
fice, and the reeom I hose woi ds from tin- lips oi
Ciirist. Whatever happens U> me in this life, what
ever else of consolation or of happine.-.- I mu\
mav 1 not miss those words when life is don •.
\\hat must 1 do, Lord, to deserve thi> \\elcome
from Thee at the la<t r
( hie essential condition is to remember and tl
oiiU'lil'. realize thai it h.i - to be <;e.t-r\. ,. It i- not
enough to de>ire, 1 mu>t deserve. l-'ive virgins cut
of ten were ready to cry out: " Lord, Loid, open to
us ! lint ttie [jreparat ion \\'as AantiiiL;'." Thcii hu
had Ll'one out. And the ans\ver to their kno(d\iiiLT
and their cry was: "Annul, 1 say to you, 1 know \,m
not."
256 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
How dost Thou know us, Divine Bridegroom, so
as to admit us to Thy presence?
Thou knowest the careful trimming of the lamp
in spite of the weariness of monotony and delay.
Thou knowest the fidelity of love that through hours
of darkness watches on in silence and in hope. Thou
knowest the regularity in religious duties that does
not look for sweetness and consolation as its pay ;
the diligence that works cheerfully and conscien
tiously because it works for Thee; the courage that
without the sustaining force of example holds on its
course.
Those who watch thus are ready at Thy coming.
They meet Thee joyfully. Thev go with Thee to the
marriage. They hear from Thy lips " Well done ! "
Thou, who a lowly bride to woo and gain
A treasury of love divine wouldst drain,
A human lot embrace, weep human tears,
Have fellowship with me in hopes and fears,
Toil at my side, a daily burden bear,
Nor quivering flesh, nor quailing spirit spare ;
Planing, Thy feet, where'er my feet have trod,
Lifting, Thy lever-life, my life to God :
Where, Lord and Bridegroom, where the guerdon won
At such stupendous cost? Hath fraud undone
Thine expectation, dared Thy suit to thwart,
And Lia proffer, for the Rachel sought ?
TTTK GLORY OF Tin- SAIXTS 2-37
Long years of labour ;>> a Mii^le dav
rriiy love hatli counted: have thev home away
rl"he prize on which. Thy faithful Hear! is sol,
Or is my strange, dull heart uncomjuored yet?
O Christ, sole Lover that niav love constrain,
Abandon not, nor let Thv (juest he vain ;
By Bethlehem's joys, bv Calvary's bitter death,
.By thi' sweet memories of Xazareih,
Give me the lcs-on of Tin life to learn;
Give me the love that would Thy love return:
Though cold my heart, unworthv, selfish, small,
liave patience with me till 1 puv Thee all !
VIII. "I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore
have I drawn thee taking pity on thee."- Jer. xxxi.
I. Who is it that has drawn mo?
II. Whence has He drawn me?
III. Whither is He drawing me?
I. God. the Almighty, the All Wise, the All Good,
who infiniiely happy in Himself, is al-o infinitely
liberal, and desires to make others, to make me a
sharer in His happiness He it is that draws me.
To this end He created mv >oul out of nothing
and irave it a likeness to H:m-elf that it misjrht be
capable of participating in His blessedness. This
likeness is in the natural order, because bv its three
powers my soul resembles Him in His Three Persons.
Still more is it in the supernatural order by the gift
258 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
of sanctifying grace which makes my soul a sharer
in the Divine Nature, a child of God, having a dis
tinct right to call him Father.
This grace eiven in Baptism is increased in evory
Sacrament, and it is always in the Name of the Most
Holv Trinity that it is bestowed.
The priest's words to us at our Baptism were :
" I baptize ihee in the Name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." When we were
confirmed the bishop said: k' I confirm thee
in the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of
the Holy Ghost. '' As children of God we have in a
sense a right to the children's Bread in which we
receive the Giver of grace Himself, Jesus Christ,
with whom are present by circumincession the Father
and the Holy Ghost. If by mortal sin we lose grace,
it is in the Name of the Blessed Trinity that it is
restored to us : u I absolve thee from thy sins in the
Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost."
And when at last the end shall come, and Holy
Church has to pour out all her treasures to strengthen
us for our passage into the life beyond the srrave,
it is again in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity
that she gives us the Sacrament of Extreme Unction :
" In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and oi
the Holy Ghost/' the priest will say, " may all the
power of the devil be extinguished in thee by the
imposition of our hands."
More tenderly still the Church will commend our
departing soul to God : "Go forth, 0 Christian soul,
TIIK GLORY OF TTIK SAINTS L>:><)
from this world, in tho Name of tho Father Almighty
who created theo, in (ho Name of .lesus Christ, tho
Son of Hit' living (iod, who suffered for theo, in tho
Name of tho Holy (ihost who was poured out upon
thee." And again : " We commend to Thee, () Lord,
tho soul of Thy servant X. . . . For although he
hath sinned he hath not denied the Father and the
Son and the Holy (Uiosf."
" (io forth." What daring words. Yet why should
it fear to go, that Christian soul, so loved Ly Cod.
to compassed throughout its course by graces! Why
should not the Church break forth into a song of
triumph over her weak tremhling child, even in the
hour when all is failing it! Why should she not
summon to meet and welcome it Angels and Arch
angels, Apostles, white-robed Martyrs, Confessors
crowned with lilies, the choir of Virgins sin^in^
jubilees! Is this too much for me!" No, for 1 am
a c'hild of the Church and when my time is come I
have a right to pass from the Church Militant and
Suffering to the Church Triumphant.. 1 have a riijht
to sec at last and know ILini in whom I have believed.
That His Countenance should he mild and festive
when I appear before him, and that lie >houhl award
me a place among those that are to stand before Him
for ever. That He should place me within the ever-
verdant gardens of His Paradise. That Ho. the true
Shepherd, should acknowledge me for one of His
sheep, and place me at His right hand in the lot of
His elect, 1 have a right to behold mv Kedeemer
face to face, and standing al\\ay> in Hi> Presence
260 HAIL! FULL OF GRACE
to gaze with blessed eyes on the open Yision of Truth.
And set thus among ihe troops of the Blessed, to
enjoy the sweetness of Divine contemplation for ever
and ever.
All this is my right as a child of the Church — if
only I persevere to the end as her faithful child. It
is my right and the Justice of God will award it
to me. But I must so live that His Justice may be
able to bestow it on me. Now is the time of His
Mercy. Now He will give me all manner of good
things to which I have no right. But at death this
sovereignty of Mercy ceases. He must be just then,
just only. Whatever in His Justice He can give me,
I shall have. Oh let me make such good use of His
Mercy now that I may be able to bear, nay that I
may gladly welcome whatever His Justice may decree
for me hereafter !
IX.— We are the children of Saints and look for that life
which God will give to those that never change their
faith from Him. — Tobias ii.
(1) I saw a great multitude which no man could
number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and
tongues, standing before the throne and in sight of
the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in
their hands (Apoc. 7).
(2) They shall be His people, and God Himself
with them shall be their God. And God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes : and death shall be
no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow
TIT!-: GLORY OF TTTE SAINTS 201
shall bo any more, for the former things are passed
away i Apoc. 'J 1 ).
(•>) Tht4 small and irroat are there (Job -i).
(4) There the wicked cease from troubling, and
the wearied are at rest (Job '•*>}.
(;")) Alleluia shall be sunir in its streets (Tobias !•>).
Mi) Many are the afflictions of the just but out of
them all will th» Lord deliver them ( Ps. '}'-',).
(7) My elect shall not labour in vain (Isaias P*")).
i S) Kve hath not seen, nor ear heard, neilher lialh
it enti-ri'd into the heart of man what things God
hath prepared lor them thai love Ifun ( I. Cor. '2}.
(!)) Atilicted in few thinir- in manv thi'y shall be
well rewarded, because (iod hath tried them and
found them worthy of Himself (\Visd. 3).
(!()) Then we set forward ... to £o to Jeru
salem, and the hand of our God was upon us and
delivered us from the hand of the enemy and of such
as lay in wait by the way. And we came to Jerusa
lem ^Ksdras 8).
CORAM SANCTISSIMO,
BY M. M. LOYOLA.
With a Preface by the Rev. H, Thurston, 8.J.
Imp. 32mo. Price, 1 6 Cloth ; 2 6 Leather.
PRESS OPINIONS.
"• Mother Mary Loyola needs, no introduetion to attract u- to
a new In*. >k from InT pen, 1'iit it is a distinct addition t<> it to
have Father Thurston's historieal outline of the ^n.wth of the
devotion to the l;le>-ed Sa -lament. Interspersed with tin-
prose arc soim' vtTscs \vhi'-li, a> t'hc |iiifa'<- tt'lls us, sin-
lu-sitatrd to iiiscil. Tin' ii-aUcr will In- uriail >lir uveroaiut- her
I . : -tancr." '/''
"This little 1 k. will prove >in_;u'uly lieljifi;!. for its
t hoi'' HI _;'hl \' prai'tiral suLji^f.-tiveiifss f"i- workaday lite in the
W. pj-lo! IS [)»•!•['. lined With tin1 J'i'-tV "f the elojstel." 77
.
"These 'Visit-' t^ tin- Ulesscd Saci-anieiil I live l»v
their beautiful and simj.le langua^o, their lofty yet prartiral
id. -a-^, and their urivat vai'iety. They will prove of -:n»al
in the spiiitnal life to people in diilerent eiri-uinstanoos.'1-
I)
"Tluw tn whom Mother L -yola \s ' Confession and
Communi'in ' is known will only need t" hear of tin's
product from her pen to hast .-n to heroine it - ;• >-se>sors.
Father Thur.>ton. S..I., eoiitril . ' ifnl lit t !•• 1 k
one , ,f those luminous pref;i •> u hi' h \\ •• are accnst' ined t" <_:<-[
fi-i-ni hi> pen, and whieh are a s^rt . .f hall mat k for the
CXeelleliee ..f the 1» ok." ' '•' /'//••,
Full of beautiful and helpful thouu'lits in [)n>se and
i, , • v ... we have nn hesitation in recommending the
book. r/«//v/< /;• . .
THE RELIGIOUS STATE. The Episcopate and the Priestly
Office. By SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS, being a translation of
the minor work of the Saint on "The Perfection of the
Spiritual Life." Edited, with preface, by the Very Rev.
Father PROCTER, S.T.M., Ex-Provincial of the English
Dominicans. Crown Svo. Price 3s. (3d.
AN APOLOGY FOR THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS. By SAINT
THOMAS AQUINAS, being a translation from the Latin of three
of the minor works of the Saint. Edited, with Introduction,
by the Very Rev. Father JOHN PROCTER, S.T.M., Ex-Provincial
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ANCHORESSES OF THE WEST. By F. M. STEELE. With
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OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE CONFERENCES, 1900-1901. By
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THE CONVENTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. By F. M. STEELE,
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ANGLO-JEWISH CALENDAR FOR EVERY DAY IN THE
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